Qinghai is one of the poorest provinces in China in economic, infrastructure, geographical, and welfare terms. It is located directly above its famous sister – the Tibetan Autonomous Region. However, unlike Tibet, Qinghai is one of the least helped provinces in China.

The work of LOVEQTRA, our on-the-ground project partner and registered Chinese NPO, directly focuses on Tibetan girls and women trapped in extremely remote areas of Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu (all neighbouring provinces). LOVEQTRA inform us that the official Tibetan word for woman is kyemän, meaning “low birth”. (Goldstein-Kyaga 1997:86). While there are more Tibetan families, notably those in the town and city areas, who treat their girls and boys equally these days, up in the remote grasslands gender inequality still remains the norm. Our partners experience confirms that when a Tibetan girl is born on the grassland, usually she has only one road ahead of her: a lifetime of drudgery and hard work. She is expected to serve her parents and brothers, cook, do household chores, milk the yaks, collect yak dung, herd the sheep. She is expected to, and does, toil from dawn to dusk. When she gets “married”, the cycle repeats itself: now on top of all those previously mentioned, she has also to serve her husband and his family. When the time comes for her to give birth, she’d pray secretly to the unknown that it is a boy. If it is a boy, then at least the son will elevate the mother’s status a little bit. If it is girl, the new mother will sigh. Through her tears she sees her newborn’s life ahead of her, mirroring her mother’s, in a broken tent on a forgotten frozen grassland.

In 2005, LOVEQTRA established a home in a remote location of Qinghai specifically to provide a place of safety and refuge for Tibetan girls who were found to be in unsafe circumstances. They started a program called Operation W.O.R.T.H. centering on Women Oppressed by & Redeemed from Traditional Hegemony. It is a 10-year program designed to systematically Rescue, Empower, Assist, Commission and Train women who are and/or have been oppressed by the traditional system, cultural bias and heritage where they are born and live. With full support from the local and county governments, the SGH was officially licensed as a Vocational Development Training Centre in Nov 2009. Captivating became involved with LOVEQTRA in 2008 when the Girls Home cared for 40 girls. Since then we have become the primary financier of this program working in partnership with them. Capacity has been expanded to now care for up to 100 girls. The focus of the program is to secure the long-term futures of these girls by giving them quality food and nutrition, medical support, and ensuring they receive a quality education and vocational development training on necessary life skills. All of these girls have dreams and this program is all about how we can help them realise their potential.

Lynn Velez leads this project on behalf of Captivating. Project funding comes from two primary areas: support for the annual operating cost of the home and child sponsorship for the specific development of the girls.

With the home now expanded to support up to 100 girls, our focus turns to the establishment of Vocational Development Program options and life skill plans for each of the girls. In addition, we will look for ways the SGH can move towards self-sustainability.

At time of writing, 90 girls are safe and secure in this home environment. The girls vary in age from 5 to 17yrs. Most of them started attending school for the first time upon coming to the SGH. These girls all live with hope of a brighter tomorrow – something none of them were prepared to even dream previously.

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