D-Starine (海豚星空号) is an NGO that is currently doing the Working Dogs Program, which purchases pedigreed shepherding dogs to send to Tibetan herdsmen to increase pasturing efficiency as part of the NGO’s overall goals of disaster relief and community reconstruction.

Learn more about D-Starine.

Here are some records of 4 days of the expedition. The D-Starine logo always attracts people's eyes, whether on the subway or the plane. The logo was originally intended just to represent unity and discipline, so I did not expect the logo to also play a role in advocacy.

January 12 – On a night flight from Shanghai to Chengdu, two flight attendants made friendly conversation with me. Others who start talking with our team members usually start by asking, "What does the dolphin symbol mean?"

Time to begin the story. We wait for the team with leaflets and magazines. I talk a lot about the children in Sichuan and the Yushu dog. The two flight attendants have a wife and mother. They say that at home in Chengdu, it is hard to find idle people who want to participate in public service activities. We looked at the computer with a lot of photos, talked happily, with the plane before we have a group photo, exchange of microblogging. Before, I did not have a very good impression of China Eastern Airlines, but this changed my views completely. Air stewardesses also have to work hard. I hope we can have an expedition together one day. I am pleased to share the story of D-Starine with them; it seems those at all walks of life can understand and love our story, but also join us. We have to work harder and create a better platform to deliver to you like a sea voyage to space.

January 13 – Today, we maintained the vehicle and saw the acquisition of 14E74, Liu Yi, which is our future player, in addition to the two working dogs we received. There is a three-month-old Chocolate Labrador MM that we did not name. She did not take a bath so she was a little stinky. 

January 14 – In the evening, the surrounding mountains had snow. In 2008, a landslide killed 17 people. A stone marks the location, so we presented a yellow tulip, to soothe the souls. At night, I slept in a room with two dogs; they are still unfamiliar to me but they spent the night.

January 15 - We have a full work load today. MaJie took us to visit some children that are receiving care at GengDa and WoLong. In WoLong, we met a 24 years old Tibetan girl called HanMei. She has a tumor at her spine, and she had a first surgical operation to remove the tumor last year. Her family spent all its wealth of 60,000 Yuen, and they have no more money for the second operation. Before HanMei got sick with the tumor, she was studying at a computer training school in the provincial capital, and she had big plans for her future. When we interviewed her, her speech was slurred due to the operation, and she cried with embarrassment. We discussed with her family through the translation of (Teacher) MaJie, and decided to take her into our Ark’s rescue plan. Even though children are the priority of the Dolphin Team, we also want to bring some hope and future to this unfortunate person.

At noon we went to the Li family, next to the new Panda Center. The man of the house is blind in one eye. Their home is overlooking the entire Panda base, and the land is very suitable for building a vacation resort. But they don’t have the money to invest, so they need public investment to help his family opened a family hotel, so that they can achieve financial independence. This is in line with our goal of "community improvement", to help the affected people, and to construct suitable social enterprise, so that the people can pull themselves out of poverty, as part of a comprehensive development.

It was getting dark, and I finally got to see the crescent moon. Since 2008, I have been in touch with a little girl with a single parent in GengDa. She has grown tall now, and is still very friendly with me. The new room extension in her family house is now complete. Alas, each time I come, I don’t want to leave. I feel that here is my land, and my people.

Late night now, and our whole team of 5 people are working intensively in the hotel restaurant until midnight. Huang Huan was great! He carefully collected all the data that we gathered today, and wrote very detailed journal record.

At noon today, the Zhang family served us bacon for lunch. The two dogs ate until their bellies were full, and later threw up in the car. At night we nestled around a toasty electric heater and slept very well.

Night time in GengDa is oppressively cold.

Original Story by Chris Yuan Yi

Edited by Emily Cheng