The Village People Project began as an idea to create sustainable organizations that would deliver a social benefit to women and children in rural China. This was not to be a charity: rather, the organizations would be nurtured and developed, with funding assistance at the outset, but it would also be prepared for the modern world of philanthropy, where funds have to be sought from performance-and plan-based foundations and governments - a project driven by "consumer" demand, rather than by the simple availability of donations.

Through luck and a few good connections, we learned of the village of Maojiazhuang. In this pretty little village, dotted with apple trees and farmhouses, the suicide rate among women of childbearing age was very high. Many visits and conversations later, our concept began taking concret shape here. The bathhouse at Maojiazhuang is the type of social enterprise we imagined, albeit with changes and adaptations along the way. Maojiazhuang is up and running, and a second village, Xifeng, is already underway, with more bathhouses envisaged.