Name: Rose Acock
From: Gloucester
Living in: London

“Having worked directly with poor rural communities in Sichuan for nearly ten years, I am still struck by how resourceful and enterprising they are in the face of poverty and natural disasters. There is still much to be done, but the experience for me, in seeing the transformations in peoples lives and communities with just a little outside assistance, was very rewarding."

Rose first travelled to China in 1988 and discovered a fascinating country still little understood in the West.  Two years later she returned to work as a teacher and on a joint venture power station project.  However, during her total 15 years in China she has primarily worked on charitable projects, including working for Trace Foundation in rural China and a project in Everest National Park.

In 1996 while living in Chengdu, she decided to set up her own UK-registered charity, the Development Organisation of Rural Sichuan (DORS).  At a time when it was very unusual for foreign organisations to work directly with target communities, the charity chose two particularly poor counties in Sichuan that had an annual income of less than RMB850 (GBP65).  In these counties, they implement small-scale projects that promote rural development, particularly focusing on women and the poorest people in the communities.  Following the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, when one of the counties where DORS is active was badly affected, they began working with local villagers to rebuild housing.

[Rose Acock with the leaders of Gulu Village]

Rose has now returned to the UK, where she continues to act as trustee and director of the charity, which now employs eight people in Sichuan.  She received an MBE in 2003 for services to China, and was the youngest recipient of China’s National Friendship Award, which she received from then Premier Zhu Rongji in 1999.