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Manawatu Branch Newsletter November 2015

Manawatu Branch of New Zealand China Friendship Association 

November Newsletter 2015  Newsletter November 2015

Next Meeting 6pm Friday 20th November

Flowers_9730 (2)In the new ETC (English Language Teaching College) Premises, 1st Floor, BNZ House, 140 the Square, Palmerston North

A Pot- Luck Dinner

for the Visiting NW Chinese Womens’ Handicraft Delegation

 

The three women handicraft experts from Northwest China will arrive in Palmerston North on Thursday 19th November and conduct a handicraft demonstration and workshop in the City Library on Friday (see attached poster). On Friday evening the Manawatu Branch will host a Pot-luck dinner to welcome the delegates to the Manawatu. Their trip to New Zealand has been organised by our Branch in collaboration with Liu Guozhong and is partially funded by the NZCFS Rewi Alley Friendship and Exchange Fund. The delegation will be led by NZCFS National President, Dave Bromwich. This will be a great opportunity to meet these women and renew old friendships with Dave and Guozhong.

 

At Our Last Meeting 

Tim Harvey, a well-known Manawatu farming identity spoke to us on his experiences in training and working with Chinese farmers in remote rural areas of China. Tim is an agricultural consultant and Director of Prosmart Agriculture, a training company based in Palmerston North. Tim described and illustrated some of the more than 40 trips he has made to Western and Northern parts of China over the last 21 years. During his earlier trips he witnessed much poverty in remote areas such as those in Guizhou,.but has always been impressed by the gratitude of peasant farmers for offers of help with training in basic needs such as farm and milk hygiene.

Tim with girl
Tim with a Miao minority girl wearing ornate silver head gear
Tim Guizhou village

The unusual hill formations found in some parts of Guizhou on a typical misty day

Tim was first taken by to Guizhou in 1992 by Professor Alex Chu as part of a United Nations development project and has maintained strong contacts with this province since that time. During this time he has run numerous training courses in Guizhou and other provinces sometimes assisted by Massey collegues such as Martin Chesterfield, covering a variety of topics such as pasture and crop production, animal health and dairy hygiene. Tim’s wife Averill is a co-director of their company and often assists in teaching English during their visits.

Their company has also arranged for visits to New Zealand by at least 10 groups of rural people totalling more than 163 Chinese through a Chinese-funded training programme. This has involved developing links with Taratahi Agriculture Training Centre which has been running a “train the trainer” programme with the Guizhou Animal Husbandry school. Taratahi staff members have visited the province and two tutors from the husbandry school have been part of an eight to 12-week training programme with Taratahi Agriculture Training.

Tim and Averill now have many old friends in China and are keen to foster the valuable relationships they have developed by involving younger people in agricultural training and development in these more remote areas of China.

 

Maurice Alley,

12th November 2015