Please help Give Lao Children A Chance
When I did a post on Give Children A Choice February 2007 Trip To Laos and Cambodia, I have had mixed feelings. I’m very happy to see that there’re people out there that are kind enough to think of our little country, of our children and they see the importance of education, this gives me hope for better future. Then I thought how could they be so successful, one of my American friends said that it’s because everyone want to get on the band-wagon, the more famous that they are, the more people will support them, look at Oprah Winfrey Building a Dream: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, she has a deep pocket, and has many supporters. She is giving back to her people, her children, I think very highly of what she is doing.
Most of us that created websites, whether it’s in myspace, blog format, website of artists or writers, we all want to promote of who we are, our culture. I find myself doing the same thing, even promoting the cultures of our neighboring countries because of the similarity to our own culture. Many Lao websites or Lao magazines are trying to display or highlight the success of many Laotians, the ones that we applaud because they represent our people well, to show the world that we’re as successful as any other ethnic groups, someones that we’re proud of. As I came across many Lao blogs, Lao websites, and Lao magazines, I’m happy to see many names and different professions that Laotians represent, they’re the ones that made it. I often think back to those that didn’t make it, those that might never have that opportunity and chance, only if some of us would give them that chance, a little hope, those are the children in Laos.
Laoplanet.net has been a supporter of Book Box Fund for several years now, we have had members and readers that help fund the program so that we could purchase books for children in Laos, and we’ve done the best that we could, but I think that we could do more. Since our website has gone through a transformation, from the old Laoplanet.net, a forum format, to Laovoices.com, a blog format, and I’m sure that we’ve attracted new readers that might not be aware of our programs. Please check our Book Box Fund section, your help doesn’t have to be in the form of monetary donation, it’d be through word of mouths, and for those that have blogs or websites, any thoughtful gesture will greatly be appreciated, if we don’t help our children to become better adults, what’s the point of trying to promote our Lao culture; eventually it might be just one of the legends that’s told to us when we’re little.
We’re currently helping to finish building a school, Dannavieng Elementary School in Phone Thong, Champassak. Darly told me that classes have already started in this new school, so far we’re able to help with the roof, but we still need more funding to finish the school. Darly will give us more update on the progress of the school. It seems that our project is progressing at a very slow rate, and any help will greatly be appreciated, please don’t forget about our children in Laos.
This is from Peter’s blog, for some of us, we might remember what it’s like to attend schooling in Laos, I was too young and didn’t have that opportunity, but thanks to people like Peter that’s caring enough to bring many videos of Laos for us to view. This is an entry from his blog,
“ The major problem facing our village currently is the lack of a permanent school building that is sufficient for the number of children in the village. We have one school building that was constructed by villagers, but the building is not securely built and is not large enough to accommodate all the children. The children are currently attending school in two sessions, morning and afternoon. In addition, the children above Primary Grade 3 have to go to school in the neighboring village. We hope to be able to have Grants 1-5 within the village. The poor condition (particularly the roof) means that during the rainy season, the children are frequently not able to be in the school because of leaks in the roof.”
Peter told me about another program that he is involved in and I like to bring this to our attention, I’m hoping to read more about Big Brother Mouse in the near future.
He and his wife had donated about 150 children’s books published in Lao/English by Big Brother Mouse to students in Laos. I checked Big Brother Mouse back in February 2007, and at the time they didn’t have many published books. Peter recently told me about them again, I was impressed that they’ve grown so fast, this is from their website,
“Until now, few books were published in the Lao Language. Many Lao people never saw a book. Children in most villages had nothing to read except textbooks, and often not even that. Big Brother Mouse has already begun to change that.
We’re based in Luang Prabang, Laos; we also have shops in Vientiane and Luang Namtha. Please come visit if you’re in Laos. If you’re not, you can learn more from this website, and we hope you’ll want to help.”
Peter thinks very highly of them, and the children seem to love their books. I don’t know a lot about them, and if you’re in the area please check them out for us, we would love to hear what you think of them.
Please help us bring education to the children of Laos, we’re not big celebrities, but we want to give back to our Lao community, there’re very few of us that are funding the book box and building of school and we do need your help. Thanks kindly.
[...] September 10th, 2007 in Laos, Charity I wrote this post on Laovoices.com, and would like to also post here for Nye Noona readers that might not have normally visited Lao [...]
Hi, this is in response to the last posting about helping children of Laos and Cambodia. While I applaud the writer’s positive reactions to our organization to help her people’s children, I do take offense at the quip about her American friend’s hurtful comments of “jumping on the bandwagon to get famous”. She has no idea how hard we work to make it as successful as it is today.
We are soooo far from being famous and as far as we know… not one of Lao descent has stepped up to the plate to help make us “famous or successful.” Please….get real….. it is NOT about that. Give Children a Choice is a labor of love and humanity at it’s purest intentions. We are a grassroots organization started with the sole intention of building preschools to help the children of your ancestoral land have a chance to grow, live a better life and achieve all the things that are possible that is available to you here in this country.
Our first and foremost intent to to ensure that the children in these remote places are not forgotten and live in poverty and ignorance for the rest of their lives. Fame is of no importance. If we wanted that, we could easily have achieved that in other ways. We are a team of five very dedicated people who have regular jobs, family and lives just like you. Three here and two in LPB. We work hard and late into the night thinking of ways to increase the literacy and healthcare levels of Laos. Them we take our ideas and implement them on our next trips.
In Laos, we travel up and down vast remote mountainous regions where no one will ever want to travel… by foot and find a few villages that could benefit from having a preschool and then organize a healthfair to ensure all the women and children are immunized and get a physical checkup. On our last healthfair, we were joined by 4 NYC physicians who gave up their time and skills to give treatment no less than 3 villages in 4 days. We organized this with little or no funds. We just found great caring individuals who want to give back and have the same mindset as we do. One poor village woman walked for 5 hours with her 3 year old on her back to recieve care for him. He would have died if Give Children a Choice was not there to give him access to medical treatment. We later returned the visit in kind by traveling the same way to her village to followup on the boy.
In the past 4 years that I have been traveling in Laos on a regular basis, there is nothing more tragic and disbelieving than to hear about how sick children are just laid down to die if the family cannot get medical help because they have no money. I have met many a parent who had to bury their children because of no funds to get medicine. The good news is we have saved many children who had the same story to tell for five dollars or less. There is no fame or fortune here… just a an undying passion to help these children to not only survive, but to succeed in life and to help them have a brighter future.
Our focus remains true that by building schools, we are building futures. I’m sorry she had “mixed feelings” about our success. But if I could define “success” as we know it, it would be that all those years of not giving up and spreading the word to caring friends and family members to donate a dollar here and a dollar there, to work with the Lao education dept and Lao health dept to come to a meeting of the minds to agree on any one thing, and NOT get lost in the translation.
Success would be staying up all night to make sure that the GCAC books are in order at all times and all donated money is allocated for the children and the schools and at the same time directing communication to the Laos coordinators to execute all the necessary documents etc. so that schools are built in a timely fashion. Success is also organizing and holding a fundraising event when you have less than 3 months with no experience and no help from anyone at all and making enough funds to build a school or health center.
Success is working late into the night to finish a deadline for the newsletter that is late already because you are overworked and understaffed Success is making sure all those children have school supplies, so you go on your days off to shop for bargains in crayons, coloring books, books for preschoolers, stuffed animals (every kid should have one in his or her lifetime) teacher supplies and lug them home, pack them in boxes, load them into the the airport, sort and pack boxes of used donated clothing from friends and family, argue extensively with carrier staff to let you bring an extra box and not get overcharged because you can’t let the kids down, land …and then in Bangkok, have it happen all over again…. multiple times. You do this twice a year for 6 years Why? To be famous and successful??? I think not. We do it because we are givers. Givers do not want any accolades or thanks. We have our thanks when we see a child hold that new stuffed bunny and smile.
We encourage the Lao Americans to keep working hard to achieve all that you can. But go back and help your fellow brothers and sisters. You don’t have to do it through us. Just contact your local Lao Ambassador or spokesperson and get involved. And BTW, this was written by an American….. who firmly believes that all children should be given a choice.
Instead of being critical, one should always strive to help others in need.
Hi Barbara Shimoda,
Thank you for your comment. I am happy to know there is another NGO out there working in Laos and trying to make a difference in the lives of the children of Laos.
I think you are a bit defensive on your comment, regarding the writer of the posting Nye aka Ginger. Her intention was to promote Give Children a Choice by writing about the organization, to help spread the words. The more people know, perhaps the more people will be willing to step in and help out.
I think you read her post out of context. She was talking about how famous people can get more people to support their causes. There was nowhere in the posting that is about people "“jumping on the bandwagon to get famous”. Rather success is based on having a great deal of support, people jumping on to your bandwagon to help you. The more famous you are, the more you are able to get people to help your cause.
I don't know if you even read her entire post at Nyenoona.com, including the comments. If you did you would know that she is a giver, as much as you, if not more. In the past she has helped many organizations like March of Dime, Salvation Army, and angel tree for Christmas.
For the past year Nye aka Ginger has been a big supporter of the Lao Book Box Fund of the National Library of Laos' Reading Promotion Program. She is also helping with building a school in Laos.
Unlike you, no one will know her face because she doesn't care for the fame or recognition. She will never be interviewed by her local newspaper or the Vientiane Times or VOA Lao News. Nye aka Ginger is one of those "silent" heroes that most people will never know about.
For some reason I sensed your frustration(s) with not getting support from the Laotian community. Your comment of "We are soooo far from being famous and as far as we know… not one of
Lao descent has stepped up to the plate to help make us “famous or
successful.” Please….get real….. it is NOT about that." made me think that you are frustrated with being abandoned by the community. You also encouraged us to give back to Laos.
I think it's wonderful that you didn't give up all these years. You could have easily spent your time and energy doing something else, like helping in another country. But you chose to help the children of Laos. At the time time, I think you shouldn't let the fact that "no Lao person" came to your ball game and ready to bat with you bother you. Just because they are not helping you, that doesn't mean they have forgotten about Laos and their own people.
I know a great deal of people that go back to Laos to visit their villages and packed their suitcases with clothes, books, medicines, toys and candies to give out to their relatives and friends and the rest of the villagers. We are all doing small things in our own way, the best way we know how.
The way I see it you took her post the wrong way and placed too much emphasis on "fame and success" part and tore her article to pieces. I can point out that you are not famous in your own definition but you have received recognition on a national level with the news article from Voice of America and also from the Vientiane Times in Laos if I can remember correctly.
You are sort of famous in your local community I am sure and also at your work place. Each time you come back from Laos you have pictures and video clips to show of your humanitarian contribution in Laos, that's your recognition, that's your fame. It is not on the same level as Oprah but you are still the star of those villagers in Laos, as famous as Oprah to them.
While you didn't set out to get "any accolades or thanks", you got them from those you helped and gained reputation and fame among your peers and local community.
That is just my input and I hope you didn't read into it the wrong way. I guess we will see…
This reply further emphasizes what Nye said: everyone gets something out of charity.
To state that a charity organization is solely raised because of "labor of love and humanity at it’s purest intentions" is completely ridiculous. This is never the case.
In the end, one of the core motives is feeling good about oneself and/or reputation in your community or religious beliefs (with the ultimate goal of heaven).
The above commenter is a plain example of this, especially how she displays how much she did in lengthy details. It is obviously her goal to build her reputation as a selfless "giver" but her comment defeats that purpose.
Thank you for your comment and I’m not offended by what you’ve said, maybe it’s because there’re some truth to it, but givers should not judge those that don’t give or follow their lead, because a reward is in the joy of giving, and I’m sure you experienced this yourself. I do feel that our people can do a lot more, but at the same time can understand that some of us don’t have the ability to give, many in my area have to work 2 to 3 jobs just to feed their family, and you’ve to help yourself first before being able to help others.
As for Laovoices, we do help, but in a smaller scale, mainly because we are not well known, and not celebrity, people don’t know my real name or what I look like, mainly because I want to be able to go back to Laos and help with what we’re doing, and not having fear of being targeted by any hatred, I want to be a neutral person, and for most Americans I don’t expect any to understand this, but for Laotians, there’s a lot of psychological issues as far as safety and such. I spoke to Darly, and since we’re not that big, we’d help to build the schools of villages that we know or come to our attention, why not help the villages of our relatives first.
As far as what you said ‘I do take offense at the quip about her American friend’s hurtful comments of “jumping on the bandwagon to get famous”. She has no idea how hard we work to make it as successful as it is today.’, and I’ve no doubt of your hard work, but it’s only hurtful because what she said also has some truth in it. Take Oprah for instance, she now has children in Africa, her school, not every poor children in Africa, but only the ones with “possibility”, and the money has been pouring in, because everyone wants to follow her lead, there are more followers in this world than leaders, this is a fact. Now, I hear on the news all the time about celebrities doing charity work in Africa, if you don’t call it, ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ I’m not sure what the correct American terminology is.
Our Book Box project is so small, we do what we can to help, but assuming that it goes on Oprah show, we would have so many book boxes that we won’t know what to do with. Oprah did a show on the public school system in NYC, one school was so badly cared for that the bathroom wasn’t working properly, but that’s to only create an awareness for people to see that we’ve here in the US also, but why didn’t she do something about it, all she has to say is ‘please help’, but she “choose” not to. I think we all have reasons as to why we do things, one of my coworker gave me a Sunday section of our Local paper that have your article on there, but I can’t find it on the Internet, and I’m planning to post this at Nyenoona.com. As one of Laotian Americans living in the US, I greatly appreciate in what your organization is doing for our people,[correction] your organization is an inspiration to many of us, and I thank you for your comment, I know [correction] your organization is an inspiration to me.
[...] September 19th, 2007 in Charity After getting somewhat of a critical comment on my post, ‘Please Help Give Lao Children A Chance’ at Laovoices.com, I can overlook at the fact that the individual’s opinion doesn’t reflect the whole organization, just as she generalized her view of Lao people living in the US, of who she thought we are, and NO we’ve not forgotten about our Lao brothers and sisters in Laos.[...]
If I have over stepped boundaries and made some people upset, then I apologize. However, I stand by my comment that Fame and success is not what we are about. Frustrated about not getting Lao support??? hmmm… I never even met one until recently in D.C. and they do want to help, but like everyone else, they too are struggling just to put food on the table. We will continue our mission regardless of accolades or criticism. At the end of the day, I know we are working hard to help those children. In regards to all of the generous donors to organizations here, keep working hard to make it a better place. If anyone is defensive about this post, it was not my intention.
Sincerely,
Barbara Shimoda RN
Give Children A Choice Inc.
You wrote: We are soooo far from being famous and as far as we know…
not one of Lao descent has stepped up to the plate to help make us “famous or
successful.” Please….get real….. it is NOT about that.
As for my mixed emotions, no need to feel sorry for me, I feel happy that there’re organizations out there that help our country, but feel sad that I couldn’t do more to help because our budget is small.
I do feel that you came in here to insult all of us, I feel a bit sad that you have a good heart to help our children in Laos, but I sense your anger and hatred toward Lao people in the US. My intention was to bring your program to light because some of us might not have heard of it before. If they choose to give to your organization instead of our program, then I have no problem because it’s still helping the children in Laos.
As Laotian Americans, most of us came to the US with a lot of disadvantage, for start Language is one of our problems, for some of us, such as myself learning my ABC in the 5th grade, but I’m very cautious in what I do or say to people, I checked your organization first, such as your registration and audited financial statements before even writing a post of your organization here, but in your case, it’s very judgmental on your part, I seriously doubt if you read my post prior to making your first comment and made the assumption as if you’re ‘IT’ for the children in Laos. If that’s how you feel, then its fine, each to their own.
I wrote this article mainly to ask people to help, but would never accuse of anyone of being heartless because most people have their own family that they have to help, and for some, their family are still in Laos, and to say that they’ve forgotten about their Lao brothers and sisters, that’s without merit. I don’t have any relative in Laos, but to hear Darly talks about the school in her uncle’s province, we all agree to help, but our name will never be on a national level, or having our photos taken with high ranking Lao officials to endorse ourselves, obviously we don’t care for that, our goal is to help build one school at a time.
[...] Nye Noona: Preschool Gives Children Fresh Start [...]
I visit laovoice on a regular basis. I miss two weeks and wow. I think this is my moment of reflection. Please read with an openmind.
To Miss Shimoda, I am a Lao American who left Laos in the 70s. I’m sure you are familiar with the history of Laos. I care enough to write this post. After I read all the comments, I know what I want to say. I know you were offended by the comment made by an “American friend”. I think he was referring to celebrities as in Hollywood or iconic figures. He probably meant that some celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon saving the world to gain publicity or for what ever reasons, not you. Still, I think the children who received the benefit from their actions could care less what their motives are. I am a sensitive person so I know why those celebrities do what they do. I think we all do it because we care. However, I am not Oprah Winfrey or Angelina Jolie. I do wish that they have done some work to help “my people’s children.” You, on the other hand, have and therefore you are worthy of my respect! The work you’ve done for the Laotian children is worth a millions acres of farm land, a million elephants, and a thousand cases of padek. I can only imagine the trails you all took, the hills you all climbed, and sweat of love you all broke to reach those children. I can trace every step in my mind. I encourage you to dig deeper and talk to both Laotians and Laotian Americans. I ask for more sensitivity and compassion for Laotian in both continents. The people of laovoice.com have done so much to help the children of Laos. Like the Laotian children in Laos, the children of Laos overseas had so many struggles during their refugee days. The readjustment struggles and cultural barriers we faced in America are a mile long. What you see on the websites and some blogs are just a few success stories of those who made it good. Despite our turbulent past and 30 years later, many have gone back and helped with what’s needed. They have their fair share of the bandwagon rides. I mean the bandwagons that are heading to Laos to help the children of Laos grow. Now that I know about your group, I am want to recognize and thank you for the work that you do. Please continue on. Good luck with your endeavors. To the contributors at the laovoice.com, I praised you all for standing your ground. I am proud of you for representing your voice. These are the Lao voices that need to be heard more. And, I also encourage you all to dig deeper, be mindful, and be conscious of how we choose our words that may affect others. Let’s not let the comment made by an “American friend” start a flame that really didn’t need to be, right? In my perspective, we are all making a sacrifice for something more important for the greater good of our children. They all are our children, right? I ask each of you to put yourselves in the others’ place and try to understand their experiences, right? Let’s all be friends and reach out to the others with warmth and care.
[...] tell me that they’re American, when they obviously looked Asian. Just like the lady that made a comment on one of my posts that I wrote at LaoVoices, her very word, “And BTW, this was written by an [...]
[...] Big Brother Mouse (BBM), I didn’t expect many questions over the matter and only wrote on my post here and also my blog that “I don’t know a lot about them”, but ignorance on my part is no excuse [...]
[...] Big Brother Mouse (BBM), I didn’t expect many questions over the matter and only wrote on my post at Laovoices.com and also my blog that “I don’t know a lot about them”, but ignorance on my part is no excuse [...]