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Iodized salt consumption in Tibet is a low as 34% percent compared with a national average of 95% for the whole of China according to 2002 national survey. UNICEF Consultant Wang Jing's assignment was to learn from the women about why the villagers used rock salt. After first explaining to them the benefits of iodized salt, the aim was then to work with the rural women on developing picture stories. These stories would communicate the benefits of iodized salt in their own language and using photographs taken by the women themselves. In this way，the women could develop messages reflecting local perceptions and culture, thereby overcoming the constraints on iodized salt use. It was a process which took five days but the picture stories can now be used to bring the message of iodized salt to other villages in Tibet.

WHY USING IODIZED SALT IS BETTER THAN USING ROCK SALT

 
Sangje was on her way home after bartering a bucket of wheat for a bag of rock salt.
  
 
…when she ran into two staff from the IDD project who asked her where she had been. Sangje told them she had been to the market to barter a bag of salt for her family.
 
 
The IDD staff explained to Sangje why it was better to use iodized salt. Adding iodine to salt was good for the brain development and will make children healthier, stronger and cleverer. Rock salt has none of these benefits.

 
Sangje liked the idea and went back home with a bag of iodized salt they gave her.

 
Sangje went home to find her husband  using rock salt to make  Suyou Tea. She told her husband that using iodized salt was good for the family's health. Her husband Gesang, told her that rock salt was cheaper and could be bartered for buck wheat .

Sangje insisted that health was more important than price and that we could save cash by selling the buck wheat to buy iodized salt.

 
Gesang thought it over and that night he used iodized salt for the cooking, adding the salt at the very last minute so that the heat would not destroy the iodine in the salt.