Primary school students get help from Japan
Japanese authorities have donated more than US$1 million towards the sixth phase of the Education Environment for Children project in Laos.
The Japanese government, Japanese International Cooperation Agency and Japanese people have donated the funds through the Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA) in Laos.
Helping Lao children and young people exercise their rights to better education and culture is a priority project for the SVA, an association official said.
A memorandum of understanding was signed in Vientiane yesterday by the Ministry of Education’s Department of Primary and Pre-school Education Director General, Mr Chaleun Souvong, and SVA Director, Mr Kawamura Hitoshi.
Representatives from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, and Information and Culture, and other interested officials also attended the ceremony.
According to a report from the Ministry of Education, the project will run from 2009-2012 in 15 villages in the capital city and in Huaphan, Oudomxay, Luang Prabang, Xayaboury, Vientiane, Borikhamxay, Savannakhet, Champassak and Saravan provinces.
The project’s aim was to improve the quality of the country’s education system for children and young people, particularly at the primary education level, the report said.
The funds would be used to construct and to improve the basic infrastructure for schools in those villages.
The SVA has identified children in need as a high priority, and is working towards improving children’s employment conditions and education opportunities, said Mr Hitoshi.
The SVA would contribute to the promotion of basic education for all children in an appropriate way for the child’s living situation and future opportunities, he said.
Mr Hitoshi said the association emphasised that children and their families should be participants in the development of knowledge, information and programmes concerning them.
“The project also wants to improve learning outcomes among primary school children, especially for children in poor districts,” Mr Hitoshi said.
Mr Chaleun said the SVA has worked to assist and support children, because they are the country’s greatest hope, and will be the key to the national socio-economic development process.
With support from SVA, the number of children attending schools has increased by up to 98 percent.
The SVA is a voluntary organisation set up to help develop a society in which people live and learn together while tolerating and respecting a diverse range of ethnicities, languages, cultures and religions.
They believe such a society can only be created based on mutual understanding, compassion and tolerance.
The SVA calls this ‘shanti’, or ‘peace by awakening’.
The association is a non-government organisation for international cooperation in the fields of education and culture, operating mainly in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
The Japanese Sotoshu Relief Committee, a forerunner to the SVA, was formed in response to the huge outflow of refugees from Indochina in 1979 and started operating in Laos in 1992.
By Phaisythong Chandara
November 12, 2009
Vientiane Times
