Awuju Village

Occupation: Awuju village is a high altitude village inhabited by farmers and herders.

Accessibility: Awuju is isolated from the provincial capital (northern plateau) by a treacherous mountain range and the only northern access road crumbled during a land slide a few years ago. The town is still accessible from both the south and the north via footpaths wide enough for an off-road vehicle.

Demographics: Awuju is one of the three poorest villages in the Jinyuan Township and only 5% of adults are literate. Recently, however, respected village member, Lerjiater, built a schoolhouse for the village and at least one child from each family now attends it.

Main Problems: fuel shortages, dermatological scarring & diarrhea, lack of accessible medical care, animal roaming disputes between neighbors.

Awuju Village, Jinyuan Tibetan Autonomous Township, Hualong Hui Autonomous County, Haidong Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Lamatsira's Family who kindly hosted us in Awuju Village The grandson of the Awuju Village leader helps his grandmother boil water. Boiled water samples taken from the kettle contained more residue than water samples taken prior to filling the kettle.