The Shambala Connection provided 86,539.90 RMB. This, plus a local contribution of 1,095 RMB in cash (plus all labor), allowed tap water to be brought to Zhuwo Village, benefiting 512 villagers (73 families) and 256 students. Before the project, each family spent 2-3 hours to fetch water everyday in order to have clean drinking water. Usually fetching water is women'€™s work. Since we did not have convenient access to water, it was very difficult for us to cultivate garden vegetables. If we wanted vegetables, it was difficult to purchase them from sellers, given our meager cash income. To reduce adult women and mothers' burden, most village families kept their daughters at home to fetch water for the family instead of going to schools, which prevented girls from being education. This project not only Zhuwo villagers, but also others. For example, both Luhuo Tibetan Junior Middle School and Zhuwo Primary School are located in Zhuwo Village. Altogether there are over 200 students. In the past, due to a lack of clean water, students used valuable study time to fetch water everyday. Moreover, the clinic of the third district of Luhuo County is located in Zhuwo Village. Patients from 30 different villages could not receive timely medical treatment because doctors were often away fetching clean water. This water system has eliminated many problems villagers had in their daily lives. For example, Nga'€™chos Tsho (b. 1952) has her mother-in-law to care for, who is in her 70s, and 2 daughters and 1 son. Her oldest daughter married a man from another village and her other two children are attending school in the local Tibetan middle school. After her husband was imprisoned, her life became exceptionally difficult. The only way for her to generate more cash income is collecting herbs during the summer or collecting donations from her family'€™s closest relatives and friends, but these donations are not much. Nga'chos Tsho said: "Before we had this reliable and potable water system, I would need to spend at least 1.5 to fetch water for the family before I went to work. My mother (the mother-in-law) is no longer able to carry 2 big buckets. If I didn'€™t do it, when my children returned from school for lunch, they would need to go fetch water for themselves and be late for school. In order to earn more money, from time to time I kept my daughter at home from school to help me to do family chores - mostly fetching water for my family. Thus my daughter learns much less than my son does. Now getting 2 buckets of water only requires a few minutes, and my daughter can continually attend school." [Zhuwo Village > Zhanggo (Luhuo) County > Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture > Sichuan Province > PR China]