The launching ceremony of “Qiang Embroidery Aid Project” was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on July 24. This project was funded by One Foundation, together with the joint support from CCP Committee of Aba Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Region and Municipal Government of the Region. It is the first officially launched project of One Foundation’s Sichuan Earthquake Disaster Relief projects.

Qiang nationality is one of the most ancient nationalities in China. Richter scale 8 Wenchuan Earthquake severely damaged Wenchuan County, Li County, and Mao County. These are the central inhabited areas of the 300 million Qiang people in China. The disaster-stricken areas are lagged behind in economic development, and lack employment opportunities. The Qiang women are the particularly vulnerable group of the disaster, many families can hardly continue their livelihood.

Qiang women are good at Qiang embroidery, which is both refined and functional. Qiang embroidery can be hand-made at home, and will produce respectable income for the family. Based on thorough research and experiment, CCP Committee of Aba Tibetan-iang Autonomous Region, Municipal Government of Aba Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Region, and Red Cross Society of China Jet Li One Foundation jointly initiated an aid program called “Qiang Embroidery Aid Project”. Chengdu Wenchuang Investment Development Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Longchen Investment Holdings Ltd. established “Employment Helping Centre for Qiang Women in Aba Autonomous Region”, signifying the commencement of “Qiang Embroidery Aid Project”.

 “Employment Helping Centre for Qiang Women in Aba Autonomous Region” is authorized by Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security of Aba Autonomous Region, and has registered at Civil Affairs Bureau of Aba Autonomous Region. It is a private, independently running, non-profitable organization, and is supervised by related departments and the general public.

One Foundation will provide production fund for the Helping Centre to cover the costs of materials, transportation and human resources. Meanwhile, One Foundation will also integrate relevant resources to assist in the implementation of “Qiang Embroidery Aid Project”, and supervise the whole process.

The Helping Centre will rely on Wenchuan County, Li County and Mao County, where the Qiang people inhabited, as “production centre of Qiang embroidery”, and create employment opportunities for Qiang women by recruiting and training them as professional embroidery makers, so as to guide the region to self-help through production. At the same time, it will establish “R&D Centre of Qiang Embroidery”, “Qiang Lady Embroidery Shop” and “Qiang Embroidery Experience Centre” in Chengdu, integrate relevant resources, set up production and sales system, and develop new projects for promoting Qiang cultural products.

It’s estimated that by December 2008, the Helping Centre will initially set up the production, management and sales system, introduce the specialists and R&D team, and finish training the first group of working staff. It’ll provide about 6,000 employment opportunities through contracted production. By the end of 2010, relevant management and supervision schemes will be further improved; 30,000 job opportunities will be created and will benefit the whole inhabited area of Qiang nationality; the Qiang cultural industry will be basically established.

At the launching ceremony, 15 Qiang women from the disaster-stricken area, representing the first group of beneficiaries of the project, received working license. Competitors for Miss Chinese Cosmos Pageant held by Phoenix TV, partner of One Foundation, also participated in the ceremony as volunteers. They will become aid partners with Qiang women workers on behalf of One Foundation, live and work with them, and learn more about Qiang embroidery and help promote “Qiang Embroidery Aid Project”.

Qiang women wish to self-help through production

Miss Chinese presenting the Qiang embroidery products; they will participate in

Executive Chairperson of One Foundation, Ms. Zhou Weiyan, giving a speech