Mr. Danny Lim provided 5,000RMB. Local recipients provided 1,650RMB. The total was spent purchasing 43 solar cookers that immediately benefited 250 Tibetans. Most recipients have an annual per person cash income of around 320 RMB, which they use to buy clothes and coal for heating. One ton of coal--the amount needed to heat one room in a home for a winter--costs about 300 RMB. Because of such expenses, it is very hard to keep a balance between needs and income. Prior to the project, most fuel used for cooking and heating came from cutting trees on the mountains and digging shrubs. Rainfall in the local area has diminished in recent years, but even worse, deforestation in the decade before 1997 caused streams to dry up quickly. The result is reflected in ever decreasing crop harvest. Because of these problems, sending children, especially girls, to school became very difficult. Some parents do not even consider sending their children to school, since children are useful in collecting firewood and they cannot afford educational expenses. Another is women’s exposure to smoke in smoky kitchens which leads to respiratory illnesses. After the project was completed, these problems are not as severe. Villagers now do not need to go to the mountains as much to cut trees and dig shrubs. Eventually this will mean more water retention in the soil and better harvests. Since much cooking can be done with solar cookers in less time, firewood that was used to cook in summer can now be saved for winter use. Children spend less time collecting fuel and can thus spend more time on their school homework, and those who were too poor to attend school will now have a better chance to go to school because less money is spent for the purchase of coal. Village women have less exposure to smoke and will be healthier.[Administrative Location: Gametang Village > Kanyang Township > Jianzha County > Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture > Qinghai Province> PRC]