A welfare program aimed at training the locals around Mount Qomolangma how to transform their lives and environment has proved a remarkable success.

From the simple measure of adding salt to staple food to tree planting; from eco-tourism to immunization, the health and wealth of a great number of Tibetans has been greatly improved.

Take Zhoinqung, a Tibetan woman, as an example. She has taught her fellow countrymen how to combat the previously habitual problem of dehydration: add salt to their staple food of Zanba, or roasted qingke flour. Qingke is a highland barley native to Tibet.

This simple method has helped the farmers and herdsmen living in Zhazong Township of Tingri County, in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, to prevent and treat this common affliction.

Zhoinqung is one of several hundred people helping to improve the living conditions of Tibetans through a welfare program.

The program is aimed at improving medical services and sanitation in the four counties of Tingri, Nyalam, Gyirong and Dinggye in the Mount Qomolangma Nature Reserve, where more than 86,000 farmers and herdsmen live.

Jointly sponsored by the local government and Future Generation, a US foundation, it was launched in 1994.

According to an agreement, the Mount Qomolangma Nature Reserve Administration is responsible for carrying out set programs and establishing the service system, and the foundation provides funds and expert consultations.

After receiving training, people like Zhoinqung are not only responsible for helping locals improve their awareness of environmental protection, but teaching them knowledge and skills, which may lead to a more prosperous life.

Most of the venues for training are in the Mount Qomolangma Nature Reserve itself. Courses are designed to accord with local conditions and address the concerns of local people.

Currently, the courses cover subjects including public health, environment protection, skills for making money, eco-friendly tourism and housing improvement.

Many trained people like Zhoinqung are to be found in grasslands, farmland and on the roads to tourist attractions, where they provide various services to visitors from across the world.

Their work also involves teaching locals how to best protect their environment.

The Garma valley in Tingri County is one of the seven major protected areas inside the Mount Qomolangma Nature Reserve.

Unaware of the need to protect their environment, in the past locals have cut down the natural forests.

The training program also sent arboriculturists to Qudang Township in Tingri County to show locals how to plant poplar, willow, apple, Chinese prickly ash and other trees.

A nursery has also been built, providing more than 30,000 saplings for a local agricultural development zone and for local people to buy. And many former lumbermen have turned to growing trees.

Zhoinqung helps villagers plant trees in their front and back gardens, sometimes even growing poplar trees, putting an end to the old saying "poplar trees do not grow in Tibet."

Yan Yinliang, an official with the Mount Qomolangma Nature Reserve Administration, said the program had to date trained more than 580 people.

A total of 223, including Zhoinqung, have been named 'Pandeba,' which means rural welfare worker in Tibetan.

These people shoulder the responsibility of more than 90 per cent of the work relating to grassroots medical and health care services in rural areas.

Their efforts have not been in vain and they have had a marked affect on the lives of those they serve, in particular health improvements, by promoting immunization of children, education on environmental protection and family planning.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2002)