A Trip to Pucheng

Early in November this year, four 1990 Institute directors – Dan Chao, Rick Chong, Lucille Lee and Vivi Zau - and 6 invited guests, spent a day in Xi’an and two days at Pucheng checking out the PCWSDA.

In Pucheng, PCWSDA Secretary General Xi Yuehong gave us an update on the operations of the Association:

It has about 2500 outstanding loans.
It has a capital of 5.3 Million RMB, of which 3.5 Million is comprised of equity capital..
It has a staff of 14, 7 loan officers and 7 office staff, including the secretary general.
This year, it is again expecting a surplus, which will be added to its equity.
Repayment rate remain at 100%.
It has hosted a “Micro Credit Performance Management and Client Protection Training Conference” sponsored by the Grameen Foundation, the You Cheng Foundation, and the China Microfinance Association. The conference was attended by the staff of 17 other microfinance institutions in China.
It has received numerous awards for outstanding performance, management, and client assistance over the past year.

At the end of the meeting, Dan Chao of the 1990 Institute and Mme Xi Yuehong, secretary general of PCWSDA, signed the agreement for the 1990 Institute to donate an additional $ 50,000 to the PCWSDA.

After the discussion sessions, we went to witness two groups of five borrowers receiving their first loans. Because of rain, and lack of paved roads, we were not able to go to the borrowers’ village, where these functions are normally held. Instead, the borrowers gathered in the kindergarten room of a school at the end of the paved road. Besides the loan officer, five other PCWSDA staff were present. The PCWSDA operating officer gave a short speech on how the loans need to be paid, the importance of making timely payments, and that we (the observers) are some of the donors providing the money for their loans. Two staff members did the paper work for the borrowers – taking thumb prints, recording personal information, and getting the loan agreements signed, etc., and finally the cashier gave out the money, one group at a time. Due to rain, our plan to visit a pig farmer in the same village was cancelled, as our van could not get up the hill on the dirt road to the village.

The next morning we went to visit several borrowers, one raising rabbits, one raising goats, and a third borrowed money to take care of her medical expenses from a serious illness. (This woman was considered a good credit risk because of her past association with PCSDA.) Again due to the rain, we were not able to visit two other borrowers who live in the hills. After the last visit, our van, even though it was parked on flat land, required several able-bodied visitors and locals to push it out of the mud!

What made the most impression on me was Liu Yu Ping (刘育萍) the loan officer for the rabbit farmer. She originally worked for the Pucheng Women’s Federation, but has been with PCWSDA since its inception. Being the most productive of the loan officers, Liu currently handles over 500 borrowers in 16 villages. Fortunately, these villages are in close proximity to each other. The village of the rabbit farmer has 1300 people, 280 families, and she has provided loans to 136 families. The land allocated to the people in this village is not suitable for farming due to lack of water, so she had encouraged the people to go into animal husbandry. (The rabbit farmer is on her 4^th loan of 5000 RMB.) Liu also does networking, she suggested that the rabbit farmer sell the rabbit dropping as fertilizer to her clients that are growing fruit trees. Yet, she has no modern means of transportation, she visits all her clients, living in the hills or on flat land, on foot or by bicycle!

Besides meeting with the Association’s staff and borrowers on this trip, we also had a chance to met with many of the association’s newly installed board of directors:

Zhang Yin - Chairwoman of the board and Vice Chairwoman of the Shaanxi Provincial Women’s Federation
Sun Lei - Supervisor of the PCWSDA and Secretary General of Shaanxi Women and Children’s Foundation
Liu Qiaolian - Deputy Magistrate of Pucheng County
Sung Xiaoyen - Chairwoman of Pucheng County Women’s Federation
Yang Chunsheng - Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China (Pucheng Branch)

Dan Chao of The 1990 Institute, and Mme Xi Yuehong, secretary general of PCWSDA, are also directors of PCWSDA. The other directors are Wang Shaoping, microfinance project manager for Plan China; Xiang Wang, Vice President of You Cheng Foundation’s General Finance Corporation; and Chen Kegang, former secretary general of the Tianjin Women and Children Development Foundation.

During our visit, we were very pleased to see the high morale, strong work ethic, and dedication of the Pucheng Association staff, and the strong support, enthusiasm, and knowledge of the new Board members. Our delegation was excited about the current operations and future growth potential of PCWSDA.

Just by looking at the pictures, one could see the acute need for more micro loans in these poor rural areas. Good credit management and fully repayment rates have enabled the borrowers to expand their businesses with repeat loans, where the same money can be lent out again year after year.

Over the past 5 years, over 25 million RMB have been loaned out to almost 9,000 borrowers. Our clients have improved their standard of living, but the average per capita income in Pucheng is still only about 50 cents a day.