Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

Remote communities in China's south west are learning how to protect themselves from fluorosis poisoning thanks to a new Oxfam initiative.

Fluorosis poisoning occurs by eating contaminated food that has been dried from burning coal on open stoves – such as these chillies, being dried over an open coal fire in Jian Shan village, Guizhou province.

Symptoms range from fluorine-stained teeth to severe skeletal poisoning and paralysis.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

This lady invited me into her home while I was visiting her village (Jian Shan) in Guizhou province.

It was early spring and still quite cold so she was burning coal on an open fire inside her home to dry food and stay warm. Her home had no ventilation and was filled with smoke which had affected her health.

It's so cold here, up in the mountains, and lives are really tough. People are surviving on corn, the staple crop. It's something they can easily grow in summer and then dry using the coal to preserve for the winter. So diet in winter doesn't get more exciting than dried corn – which is fluorosis poisoned – and chillies.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

This 70-year-old man lives in Jian Shan village and is suffering from fluorosis which has affected his bones – causing a hunch-bank condition – and his hands.

Life for people his age is hard because their adult children have left the village to look for work in the cities – life in the village just isn't sustainable and young people cannot earn a living here.

It's too late to help this man but the hope is that we can work with the next generation to stop fluorosis poisoning.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

I met this lady in Jian Shan village, Guizhou province. You can see the effects of fluorosis in her hands. And movement for her was really difficult.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

To address the fluorosis problem we are providing community health promotion and education in disease prevention. Posters up in the village are part of the first stage of educating people about fluorosis and its symptoms.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

To address the fluorosis problem we are also supplying villagers with anti-fluorine stoves and building concrete solar-drying platforms for food.

This is an anti-fluorine stove at the village doctor's house. We are working really closely with the doctor as a key advocate in the community to raise awareness of fluorosis as a disease. Some people are still struggling to make the connection between burning coal in their houses and fluorosis poisoning.

So the village doctor plays a really key role. Here he is modelling use of the anti-fluorine stove and you can see the difference in conditions inside his house. There's none of the soot – the stove is covered with a chimney taking the fumes outside.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

Wang Yong Qing invited me into his home and told me about his life. His adult children had moved to the city to earn money to send back to the family because he and his wife were not growing enough food to feed the whole family.

He told me how rice is a luxury item – something you have on special occasions. Oxfam is addressing this problem by establishing some income-generation activities – things like pig-raising and growing walnuts that can be sold for income – so that people can buy rice which is more nutritious and is not fluorosis poisoned.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

Maogu is a poor village in a remote part of Yunnan province. With poor access to local markets or a fresh water supply, life for the community here has been hard.

With our help, the community's priority projects have been realised: together we've built a road to the village and constructed more than 100 water tanks, providing fresh, clean water for the community.

This is the view from the newly constructed road to Maogu.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

Another view of Maogu village from the newly constructed road.

The road has been a collaborative effort: we provided 70 per cent of the funding, the government provided the remaining 30 per cent and the community provided the labour.

The new road has reduced the cost of getting produce to market and the cost of products coming into the village. Also, villagers can now easily access schools, healthcare and other services in the main centre.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

The road to Maogu village is already making a real difference to people's lives. I met this lady on my walk to the village. She was bringing her goats back from pastures into the village for the night. She told me it was much easier for her to get up the mountain now the road has been completed.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

Yang Can Rong (second from the left) is the Maogu village leader. He is one of the youngest village leaders in Yunnan province.

He told me he was really excited, not only because the Oxfam projects will deliver improved services, but because they will give young people work and a reason to stay in the village. Before, anyone who was young was leaving to work in the cities and sending money back to their families.

He said that as a result of the roads and water tanks being constructed, young people were starting to see that staying on in the village was a real possibility.

This was exciting to see, he said, that young people now had a future in rural China.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

A group of villagers from Delangtian village who were working on the community road the day I visited.

Photo: Photo: Louise Mooney/OxfamAUS

The view from the road being constructed to Delangtian village, Yunnan province.