Topic Paragraph
In many societies, women are faced by challenges they have to deal with on a daily basis. Some of the challenges they face deprive them of their capacity to sustain their livelihoods hence compelling them to lead lives of poverty.
In China, women who live in rural areas prone to floods go through a lot of suffering when the floods occur (Du and Zheng 75). Some of the factors that make them suffer include lack of planning on how to mitigate the effects of floods and inadequate disaster preparedness.
As a result, there is need for women to be empowered through various projects that attempt to reduce their vulnerability to natural disasters. Among the organizations that have taken the lead in addressing the challenges women face in China is China Women’s Development Foundation.
The foundation intends to work on a project that will deal with the challenges women are exposed to due to natural disasters. This detailed proposal provides the funding agency with a breakdown of how the project will be undertaken (Community Projects Funding 5).
Funding Agency and its Guidelines
The funding agency to provide funds for the project is known as Women’s Hope and Education Trust. It is an international organization that funds women’s projects with the aim of empowering them and reducing some of the problems they go through.
The agency has a number of guidelines that should be followed in order for funds to be granted. The first guideline is that the group seeking the funds must have worked for at least two years and its membership must exceed eight people.
The second guideline is that there must be a guiding constitution for the group. The third guideline is that the group should demonstrate leadership qualities and preparedness to impact the community positively. The fourth guideline is that the group should prove its inability to pay the required money and finally, it should be ready to receive further training in educational institutions.
Literature Review
Project Summary
Most women in China are exposed to many social problems due to lack of financial resources and the fact that education chances for women are limited.
When natural calamities such as floods take place, people suffer with women bearing the brunt of such calamities hence the need to find ways to reduce the adverse effects that come with floods. In China, women who live in the river basins are exposed to high economic risks since such calamities occur repeatedly.
Despite the fact that the calamities are seasonal, once they occur women lose their livelihoods, housing and even deaths are recorded. This happens as a result of lack of enough planning, absence of organizational skills and ineffective strategies to mitigate against such disasters.
In order to deal with the unfortunate circumstances women find themselves in, Women’s Studies Institute in China intends to put in place mechanisms to counter the risks associated with such disasters and instead raise livelihood chances for the vulnerable women.
The project intends to build capacity for women living in disaster prone areas to assess economic risks, embrace strategies of coping with the disasters and reduce the losses associated with the disasters. In addition, the project will increase the chances of livelihood for women by improving their access to markets, elaborate planning, quality production and encouraging women to work collectively.
The project intends to boost new techniques of carrying out agricultural activities, make use of available subsectors and establish and support cooperatives with a strong emphasis on participation of women. Through the intervention, it is anticipated that women and the community at large will gain new skills that will sustainably improve their chances of livelihoods after disasters.
Problem Statement
Women and other disadvantaged individuals in China who live in areas prone to floods are exposed to rising economic risks apart from having to deal with the difficult impacts of natural disasters. The nature of the land and topography in China exerts pressure on the environment hence it causes unexpected disasters such as floods.
Such disasters affect women negatively and make their lives difficult due to lack of economic sustainability. Floods in China lead to destruction of agricultural land, displacement of biodiversity, reduction in the productivity of human health and loss of livestock. These occasional occurrences make women even more vulnerable, destroying their source of livelihoods and making their sustainability mechanisms unfruitful.
In addition, women more often concentrate on income generating activities that are not sustainable due to lack of enough planning, absence of organizational ideas and ineffective strategies of coping with the situations. As a result, there is need to put intervention measures in place in order to liberate the Chinese women who live in rural and vulnerable regions from the challenges they go through (Jacka and Sargeson 198).
Project Description
Following a request from the funding agency, this proposal is developed to create and implement an intervention mechanism aimed at improving the lives of the Chinese women and enhance their livelihoods. The proposal discusses strategic approaches that will be used together with the efforts of other organizations in managing disasters and reducing the vulnerability of women.
The main contribution of the project will be the increase in livelihood chances for women, factoring in the natural calamities and working for a long-term sustainability for the vulnerable women. The project will look at the areas where women are vulnerable and marginalized and create strategies that will increase their knowledge and skills in sustaining themselves.
Project Goals
The project’s overall goal is creating better livelihoods for the Chinese women who face many challenges due to natural disasters and underdevelopment.
Project Objectives
The following are the objectives the project intends to achieve:
- Eliminate the economic risks that face women in rural areas as a result of natural calamities
- Enhance the capacity of the targeted women to identify, produce, finance and market the agricultural products they produce.
- Support the establishment of community-based organizations and develop strategies for marketing the products produced by the women in order to increase their sustainability.
Project Results
The following results are expected to be achieved by the time the project will come to an end.
- The women will have more knowledge on how natural disasters such as floods affect their economic sustainability.
- They will also have adopted appropriate participatory strategies to mitigate against the effects of natural disasters on their lives.
- In addition, the women will have acquired skills of managing the community-based activities aimed at improving their livelihoods.
Project Methodology
There are a number of components that will be adopted by the project in an attempt to implement the project methodology and eventually achieve the desired goals.
Awareness and education on Disaster Preparedness
The project will make arrangements for the women to be taught how to deal with disasters through workshops. This will boost their existing knowledge on disaster preparedness. The main focus will be the economic hurdles that are brought about by natural disasters.
Some of the mechanisms that will be used to prevent the losses that accompany such disasters include community insurance. This will be achieved through institutions owned and run by the community members especially women in order to reduce the economic burden associated with natural disasters.
However, this is a concept that will be designed after consulting the affected communities to assess the needs and risks and then incorporate a participatory approach. At this level, it will be the goal of the project to carry out research and create practices of community insurance to establish mechanisms of handling economic downturns occasioned by natural disasters.
Establishing Community-Based Organizations which are Sustainable
Community based organizations make it possible for disaster interventions to be sustained for a long period of time. They are also responsible for promotion of good governance and equity.
The project will offer its support to ensure that community based organizations take up the role of disaster management and marketing strategies in a more systematic way to reduce the risks of natural disasters. By using planned intervention measures, education and awareness will be generated through cooperatives to benefit the women (Chen 92).
New Agricultural Techniques
The project will strive towards the introduction of better irrigation mechanisms, cash-cropping methodologies and agro-forestry techniques. The vulnerable women will be provided with technical and financial assistance in order to effect the implementation of the techniques.
Provision of technical assistance will be participatory in nature and also through production strategies. In addition, the women farmers will be given opportunities to attend agricultural fairs and other exhibitions.
Works Cited
Chen, Martha. Membership-Based Organizations of the Poor, Routledge New York: 2007. Print.
Community Projects Funding 2009. Web.
Du, Faghqin and Xinrhong Zheng. Women’s Studies in China:Mapping the Social, Economic and Policy Changes in Chinese Women’s Lives, Ewha Womans University Press: Seoul, 2005. Print.
Jacka, Tamara and Sally Sargeson. Women, gender and development in rural China, Edward Elgar Publishing: New York, 2011. Print.