Sarah D Wilcock has accepted to answer to our questions to present the Alpha Communities association
Maxxelli-blog: Age, sex, position
Sarah D W : 45, Female, Field Director for Alpha Communities Sichuan
Maxxelli-blog: What do you do in Chengdu?
Sarah D W :Field Director for Alpha Communities Sichuan
Maxxelli-blog: What did you do before?
Sarah D W :Working for Alpha Communities in Mongolia as Community Development Officer
Maxxelli-blog: Why did you come to Chengdu?
Sarah D W : To take up the position. I studied in Chengdu eight years ago and have always wanted to come back to Sichuan.
Maxxelli-blog: How did you start working in/for Alpha communities?
Sarah D W : When I was studying in Chengdu eight years ago I was interested in the work Alpha Communities was doing sponsoring students and helping village schools and started to do some voluntary work.
What are yours main activities?
Sarah D W :Alpha Communities is a non-profit organization which works in poverty alleviation and community development in China and Mongolia. Alpha Communities started in Sichuan in 1997. Historically our Sichuan work has been mainly in Liangshan and Aba Prefectures but we are currently expanding our work to the rural areas of east Sichuan.
We work with local government and communities in environmental protection, basic hygiene, renewable energy, education, nutrition and a host of other issues. A major part of our work has been student sponsorships as education can make a crucial difference to development, empowering people and giving them the tools to make a living for themselves. We also assist village schools by setting up libraries, providing solar showers, heating and other equipment. We help nomads grow new grass on land that has become desert. In addition, we fund vocational training for farmers who suffered in the 2008 earthquake.
Maxxelli-blog: How can people help?
Sarah D W :We have a long-term commitment to our sponsor students to see them through their education and graduate with a qualification that will enable them to find suitable work. Funding for this programme is an ongoing need. In addition, we have a number of one-off or shorter term projects which we are running or wish to run which require one-off funding.
Our philosophy is to work with community leaders and volunteers to respond to the needs of local communities so, whilst our work has a large impact, our staff is small. As our programmes grow geographically we will be looking for volunteers in new communities to help with our work.
As we seek to respond to the needs of the community, whatever they are, we sometime require specialist knowledge and expertise in order to best consider and address these needs.
In addition, many of our students, and their classmates, would like to improve their English language so there are sometimes opportunities for people to assist during school holidays.
You can download here the Alpha Communities Annual Report 2008
Contact
website: www.alphacommunities.org
Sichuan office:
Alpha Communities (HK) Ltd
Sichuan Representative Office
Yiguanmiao Youdianju, PO Box C-23
Chengdu
Sichuan 610041
People’s Republic of China
Tel: +86 28 8638 1698
Fax: +86 28 8638 1698
Email: sichuanoffice@alphacommunities.org
四川代表处：
香港爱福社团有限公司， 四川代表处
中国四川省成都市衣冠庙邮 电局 C-23 邮箱
邮编：610041
电话：+86 28 8628 1698
传真：+86 28 8628 1698
电邮：sichuanoffice@alphacommunities.org
