School Building Project
During my three weeks stay in my uncle’s hometown, Bane Dannavieng, in January/February of 2007, I visited the local school out of curiosity. To my surprise, the school buildings didn’t look any better than my former school in Vientiane. Since there is no budget for education, the villagers are left to take care of their local school system and do the best they can – with extremely limited resources – for children in the school’s proximity.
My family and I donated some money to the school along with some pens and pencils for the teachers and students. Since we collected enough money for four book boxes library and had the option of selecting which schools we wanted to donate the book boxes to. Dannavieng Elementary was selected as one of the schools to receive a book box.
These villagers did the best they could and built a few buildings for the elementary school and middle school. There was no local high school and, because of this, many students could not continue their education after elementary school.
Bane Dannavieng, was able to build a new high school through a self-started local funding. Under the guidance of Phor Yai (big father) the villagers would put in $10.00 (per family, a considerable amount for Lao villagers) annually into a village fund to build a school. It took them quite a few years to complete their first high school but they succeeded.
Presently, the stream of many younger students entering the school has grown very fast. The elementary school became overcrowded and the school board was forced to build a new elementary school. This project is expected to complete in three years at best. In the mean time, because of the large number of students, pre-school students are obligated to cut lessons short in order to enable older students to use the classrooms.
Since the school building project has lifted off, classes are being held outside during good weather for some of the students that can’t fit into this one building. This situation is far from ideal in an educational system that already lacks many resources.
Fortunately, this positive story does not end there. When I came back from Laos and posted about the school building project in Bane Dannavieng, readers and members of Laovoices.com displayed great interest in the project and offered to help in many ways. Through these actions we were able to fund a substantial part of the new school’s roof.
Dannavieng School Building Project Supporters:
April 2007
Nye Noona – $50.00
Friends of the NLL – $200.00
Lao Cook – 400.00 Euros
December 2007
Nye Noona – $150.00
Friends of the NLL – $350.00
August 2008
Amphone – $50.00
Nye Noona – $250.00
Friends of the NLL – $250.00
Many thanks to the contributors of the school building project thus far. The villagers have expressed their gratitude and are very happy to know people abroad do care about them. All contributors have been invited by the school committee to join them for the opening ceremony whenever it can be held.
Kind regards,
DJ
Dannavieng School Building Project Update:
Videos update of the school building project.
Hello,
My name is Manoj. I funded two secondary schools in Cambodia and I am interested in funding some development projects in Laos such as a school, books boxes, etc. I have been to Nong Khai and Chiang Khong in Thailand but I have not been to Laos yet. I sent an email to Kongdeuane Nettavongs, the librarian of the National Library of Laos and the contact person for Reading Promotion Program. Can you give me some advice and information how I can best help the children of Laos have a better future?
Manoj Paul, Pharm. D., M. S.
home
9101 South 84TH Avenue Hickory Hills, IL 60457-1801
(708) 598-9214
manojdephoto@yahoo.com
work
Night Pharmacist
Resurrection Health Care
Saint Joseph Hospital
2900 North Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 665-3140 (773) 665-3462 FAX
http://www.reshealth.org/sub_sjh/default.cfm
Dear DJ,
I just read your article about your efforts in building a high school in Bane Dannavieng. I really admire and commend your efforts to bring education further along beyond elementary school for the local children.
Please let us know if you need any assistance. I would also like to know what is included in the book boxes. They seem very well packed with books. It’s caring people like you who will help Lao move further along in education torwards a better future. Keep up with the great work.
All the Best,
Barbara Shimoda
Give Children A Choice.
http://www.givechildrenachoice.org
Dear DJ,
I am very impressed about your effort in Laos. We are a small charity based in Hong Kong and we have built schools in different parts of Asia in the past few years. We would like to see if we can help in Laos. I am very interested in knowing more about your work and your future plans in Laos, and see if we can play a part too.
Please keep up with the good work and I sincerely look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
Agnes Cheng
Studer Trust
Hi Manoj Paul,
Pretty much anything you can do to help the children of Laos is good. There are many worthy NGOs in Laos that you can contact and see if you can help in anyway or set up your own organization if you want to.
Dear Barbara Shimoda,
Thank you for your continual efforts in helping the children of Laos. I can’t take any credit for the school building project at Ban Dannavieng. I only posted about it and thanks to many generous donors, the school is more than half way completed. There is still a lot of needed assistance and it is not just this school. Every where I went it is always the same story with needing funding to improve the school. I will contact you for further information in the near future.
As for the book boxes, the books have been packed by the National Library of Laos. We bought the book boxes at $200.00 a piece. This included the shipping cost to send the book box to a school of our choice. The books included are fiction and non-fiction and they have been approved by the Ministry of Education. The books are produced locally and have been purchased by the National Library of Laos for their Reading Promotion Program.
You can see what type of books that were put in the book boxes for the year 2007 in our Gallery.
Dear Agnes Cheng,
Thank you for your interest in helping the children of Laos. I will contact you soon to give you more information about what you can do to help with promoting education in Laos.
Dear Barbara Shimoda,
INDIGO THREADS is a small, non profit(50-3-C) humanitarian organization dedicated to the development and support of educational needs in Southern Laos for desperately poor rural children. I am the Founder/President and Executive Director working in the field with our ‘hands on’ education Programs.
We recently completed our second school construction within one year of each other-Ban Lieng Secondary School and the first, Louyta Primary School both located in Pathomphone District. Construction is not our main focus but it is an unspoken expectation as most schools in the area could be considered no more than a shack. In addition, INDIGO THREADS makes repairs to schools and considers building latrines and digging wells for safe drinking water at other schools.
Our focus is to provide desperately poor students with school supplies, clothing, a nutritious school lunch and our new pilot Program, School Health Check up providing medicines if needed. We furnish schools with desks, blackboard and support teacher with teaching aids. Education in rural area is still not a priority as children must help their parents with survival needs. INDIGO THREADS
makes it possible for the children to attend school. We give the gift of education; a gift that lasts forever.
I am particularly proud of our Primary School Lunch Program preparing, transporting and serving 1,750 healthy school lunches to the students at 4 school. This four year continuous Program address malnutrition and hungry students allowing them to learn. We will be expanding our Primary School Reading/Recreation Program to 10 additional schools in mid December.
For the past 4 years, I have dedicated my time, energy and money to assist with education where it is sincerely needed in Southern Laos using my personal retirement funds. As these funds are no longer available, I would be more than grateful for any funding assistance . Please, contact me for more information and visit our website and the blogs, also, with updated Program information.
Thank you.
Mary D. Meyer
INDIGO THREADS/President-Director
Laos Education Support and Village Development
A Non-Profit (501-3-C) Humanitarian Organization
http://www.indigothreads.org
mdmeyer@indigothreads.org
LOL! Are the Avatars representative of what LV feels about outside repliers?
The avatars are randomly selected based on what is available and supported for those without their own avatar (gravita). Look at my own avatar for example. If you want an individual gravata, then go to http://www.gravatar.com and set up your own account and use your own gravita to make comment.
I got a steady avatar. It works on any blog which connects to gravatar.com, such as WordPress, Blogger, Livejournal and such.
A Legacy of Hope through a history of tragedy.
Hi all, this was written in August 26th 2008
It was a running stream of conscienceness that depicted the unbelieveable experinces we had while traveling in this beautiful but tragic part of Laos. I hope you read it and become as affected as we are and help to clean this land to make it useable for all the children of Laos.
Sabaidee Everyone!
Picturesque scenery of Phonsavanh, Xieng Khouang Province, LaoPDR. This is Barbara Shimoda , keeping all of you, my friends and family updated on what is happening on our trip to Laos. I hope this email finds you all happy and doing well in your lives. What can I say about my trip except that every time I return from Laos, I have many things that very weigh heavily on my mind.
It’s August 26, 2008. During this trip, we visited with a number of villages in Xieng Khouang Province. We walked through the villages with the village leaders. They were surprisingly anxious to tell us their stories. They thanked us for caring enough about them to ask about their village, the villages’ history, the families and their children. We also visited with other NGOs as well. Below are highlights from our experiences and their stories.
As part of our ongoing Give Children a Choice preschool project, Dori, Dr. Debra, Dr. David and I went to visit Xieng Khouang, one of the most heavily bombed provinces in Laos. (Dr. Debra and Dr. David practice at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York City.) The purpose of our visit was to tour the preschool sites of Lathgnorn and Lathesene villages. The Legacies of War (LOW) project organization joined us for part of the trip. They were following up with their “Schools Not Bombs Campaign” to help these poor villages heal and move on towards a future that will be positive through the efforts of education. Their Executive Director Channapha Khamvongsa led a fact finding tour with her group of 12 to investigate the past issues that have continues to plague the country even after 30 years. Working with LOW, we are building a preschool in Lathsene village. Our hope is that they continue to build more preschools in the future. In addition to the Lathsene preschool, preschools are being built in Lathngorn and Nong Diang villages.
We stayed in the sleepy town of Phonsavanh about 7-8 hours by car southeast of Luang Prabang. The scenery is breathtaking and so beautiful. There are mountains everywhere that look so green, lush and fertile. The temperatures are surprisingly temperate considering we’re in the tropics. You would also never suspect anything horrible ever happened here. There are large circular bare patches of land littered everywhere amongst the lush green landscape, but you would never suspect that they were bomb craters unless you knew about the local area’s history. As well, you wouldn’t realize the magnitude of the unexploded ordnances (UXOs) unless you explored the area more deeply.
Dr. David, Dr. Debra, Mr. Xaysamone, Director of The Phonsavanh Friendship Hospital and Barbara Shimoda R.N.
(left to right)
The weather can be hot during the day and always breezy, but not it’s not the same tropical heat one expects in Southeast Asia in the height of the middle of the summer. The evenings were temperately cool, so you always get a comfortable sleep. The food is simple, very delicious, “organic” and hand picked by the farmers and sold in the open market. The markets open very early before the sun rises and stay late so everyone has a chance to buy their “groceries” for the evening meals.
The Lao people have learned to live with these UXOs for over 30 years and go on with their simple lives as normal as possible. The land they farm and to raise cattle are uncleared. That means that they could inadvertently hit with their shovel a UXO buried under the soil. They prepare, grow and harvest the land even though it is a big risk to their lives everyday. They know the risks. The have no choice to use the little land they have available to them. They are poor. They have no alternative but to use the resources they have.
Bomb craters litter the landscape from above.
In addition, the UXOs are made of high-grade US steel. Given the large number of UXOs — up to one-third of the two million tons of bombs dropped in Laos in a roughly ten year period, but with the more heavily concentration of bombings in the late 1960s — and given the high demand for high-quality scrap metals, poor families of parents and children are searching the lands for UXOs and will trade the UXOs for cash at local foundries. The scrap metal brings in income to feed the family. Many children do not play. They work the fields and search for UXOs and scrap metal so that they can sell it at the foundry for as little as 18 cents for 1 kilo (MAG — Mines Advisory Group — statistics). These children do not have a childhood. Everyday, their focus is how to make money to help the family. As a consequence, there are at least 1-2 people injured per week, maybe more. The sad thing is that they live so far from the cities, they lay in the field for hours or days before someone can find them. Most die because they have little time and no access to medical help.
MAG and UXO Lao and others are both trying to eliminate these UXOs, but UXO removal is a tedious process and costly, funding for these projects are limited and, as with everything, lack of money is always an issue. They do try to do the best they can with the limited funding they get from world organizations.
These are the average amount of bomb findings per week found by civilians and bomb excavaters. Every Friday, they are taken away to be blown up in a controlled area
We visited the local hospital where a Hmong farmer was badly injured when he was tilling the soil to plant rice. His shovel hit bombie (cluster bomb) and it exploded. He lost both feet and 3 fingers. He is such a poor man and he is the main provider for his family. He had decided to expand his fields to earn more money to support his family. One could say that he was foolish to work in a field that has not been cleared. We thought the same, until we visited the villages where we are building preschools. The villagers there are also farming on land that has not been cleaned up. We asked them why because it is dangerous. Their answer is consistently, “If we don’t use the fields, we don’t eat.” Now, the Hmong farmer is maimed for life and will have limited ability to earn money for this young wife and children. Prosthetics will hopefully be provided to him with training to earn income through alternative means, but it will a hard transition. His family has been farmers for generations. (Dori and I gave his wife $100 for the short term to help her with daily expenses in the meantime. But, it is so little and so late.) In that moment, it was all became real to me. I now have a better idea of what these people go through everyday of their lives.
This is a graphic picture of the poor farmer who was critically injured August 1st, 2008
Wife and child of Hmong farmer. They have very little means of support now.
2 villages, many UXOs
The land where we are building two preschools are cleared, but cleared means that 70% of the UXOs on average has been cleared. Dori and I with our Lao coordinator Thongchanh walked with the village leaders in our preschool villages where the UXOs have not been removed. It was very scary. I was not told until I was in the middle of the field. I have to tell you that I was feeling very mortal and can only begin to understand what these people got through every day of their lives. The problem is that they suffer in silence. They just accept it and go on. I suppose that is the only way they know how to survive. There is no use crying about it if they can get no help to remove these horrible reminders of war. Later, I also went with the UXO Lao organization to see the actual bombs that were found and exploded by trained UXO removal technicians before our eyes. I have to try and find a way to get rid of these bombs.
Lathsene
We are building a one room preschool with LOW in this village. This village is approximately 17 kilometers from Phonsavanh. On the whole, it looks like any ordinary poor village, but what makes this area unique is that there are many bomb craters that litter the tops and sides of mountains and rice fields. Some people have ingeniously built their huts within the pits and others have turned it into a little pond for growing catfish. We were greeted by the village elder and historian. He is a man who is in his fifties, but looks much older from the ravages of war. His manner was open, friendly and very informative as we kept asking question pertaining to his village history. He shared that he was proud and honored for us to visit his village, speak with him and to receive brand new preschool.
Legacies of War group is thrilled to see their preschool in the process of being built. Completion of a preschool is within 3 months from start to finish.Lathsene is a village of no less than 100 families that has survived the massive bombings. He described how his village members had to dig deep fox holes or trenches to jump into and hide, when they heard to the US planes approaching. The trenches were built near where they worked in the rice field. They learned there wasn’t enough time to run home for cover. (In retrospect, hiding in the field seemed to be right decision. Virtually all villages were destroyed through bombings during the sixties and early seventies.) Whole communities hid for days and weeks in the trenches without food or water. They were finally forced to leave their village as the mounting casualties were too great only to return when the war was over. We admired the villagers courage, perseverance and love for their home village.
The very land we stood on was not clean. In 1986, the Soviet government sent a team of agriculture specialists to help these refugees reclaim the land and grow rice, other corps and raise cattle. They built some building and provided equipment. They remained for nine years. In their opinion, the land was so filled with UXOs and again faced with limited resources, they just back filled it with tons of dirt to cover them. During the early years after heavy rains, UXOs “floated” to the surface and were eliminated by the village engineers or they just worked around them. The village elder said that it is still very possible that these UXOs will surface and kill some unsuspecting human or animal, but they have no choice but to grow food to eat. After the Russians left, they continued to farm and raise cattle to this very day.
Remnants of the Soviet agricultural group that stayed for 9 years to help Lathsene rebuild her farming economy.Another major village concern was that during the two months of the dry season, they have no water to wash and drink. They must drive over 5 kilometers to the next town to buy water or get water from the local well. The land is very challenging to work with. Since that village does not have enough water, water is a much needed commodity and it is rationed heavily. I have to say that the Lathsene village community works very hard to support each other. They share the little water they have with those who unable to get water because of age, disease or disability. When someone is sick or hurt, they all gather not only to find out what is wrong, but they give open opinions on what is the best way to deal with the situation. When a solution is reached, they all join together to address it. No one is really alone in Laos. Everyone is a brother or sister.
Lathsene Village preschoolers greeting us with smiles, songs and dance.
There was an old dilapidated preschool at Lathsene, but it is unusable and deemed unsafe for the little ones. There was an adhoc preschool program grown out of the necessity to minimize the distractions preschool children cause when they accompany their older primary school brothers and sisters. It was not a school with teachers formally trained in early childhood education. It was more like a daycare center for farmers to leave their children to go to the fields to work and the older children go to school. The teaching was informal and not integrated with any formal government preschool education program. In speaking with Mrs. Xaysamone, the Vice Head of the Xieng Khouang Provincial Education Department, the Xieng Khouang Education Department is only now beginning to understand and recognize the importance and necessity. They are developing a formal preschool program and are sending existing and new teachers to Vientiane (the capital of Laos) to learn how to teach young children ages 3-5.
The Give Children A Choice and the Legacies of War teams arrive in Lathsene preschool site
Dori Shimoda with Mrs. Xaysamone, Director of Education in Xieng Khouang Province. at the signing of MOUs to build preschools in Lathsene and Lathgnorn.after the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) signing at the Education Department. Upon arrival, we could all see that the foundation and pylons were in place. They started construction as soon as we had full funding for the preschool last week. Everyone thought it was an awesome sight to see. Most everyone was a bit teary eyed to see what the fruits of their labor had brought. We were walked to the primary school to see the preschoolers who were all sitting quietly waiting for us to come. I arrived first and blew balloons for all of them. I was soon joined by the rest of the group who all wanted to engage with the children. We sang songs both in English and Lao. I learned how to sing “When you’re happy and you know clap your hands in Lao.” Now if only I can remember it. I asked Phitsamay, one of the LOW members who is Lao American to send me the translations at a later date. She was very good at bonding with the children. The LOW members gave presents to the children and staff. We attended a baci celebration the village leaders organized to honor us for building them a much needed preschool. The children gave us flowers and the elders blessed us by tying strings on our wrists and chanting verses about good health, prosperity and happiness to us. Because of a previous engagement, LOW team had to leave, but we stayed behind to do health check ups and spend time with the village and play with the children.
Lathgnorn
We are building a two-room school through the generosity of the US-based Coleman Fung Foundation. Lathgnorn’s beauty and dilemma is that her residents have in the past faced adversity and continue facing many of the issues mentioned previously. But they do it very well. They have community pride in their village to work together to make the best of it, as explained to us by the naibane (village leader). On the surface, this village
Dori with the children of upcoming Lathgnorn preschool.
looks like a thriving community with many new home construction coming up to replace many of the old huts, but these solidly constructed partially-completed buildings are over 10 years old. It takes normally 15 years to build a home because they are so poor. As the families have a few extra dollars left over from their living budget, they will buy another dozen bricks or a bag of cement, the needed materials a little at a time to build their house. Sometimes it is one brick at a time, as time is available over above their other responsibilities. We noted that both men and women digging trenches for a new home.
Home loans are not in existence in Laos. Some families with no land to farm so they go to different villages looking for work. Again as other villages, the village raises cattle and grow rice. Much of the land is unusable because of the many UXOs that again are left in the ground and worked around. Unlike Lathsene, it did not have the luck to be covered over by tons of dirt. Just walking around the village is a big risk. When asked how come he is not afraid, the naibane (village leader) explained that since they have been walking on this path for so long, nothing has happened in a long time, so it must be okay. He added that his village has no choice to work the rice fields. He emphasized and reinforced, “If we don’t grow our food, we don’t eat.” As he is saying this with a smile, I am secretly panicking and hoping this tour would be over soon. I found out that when they clear, it is only 70% since they do not have enough man power, funds or technology to ensure 100% clearance. There is no way to find out just how many tons of UXOs are still underground and can be detonated by some unsuspecting person who steps on it or surfaces either by man or environmental causes. I only worry about the villagers who are literally living with time bombs waiting for the inevitable to happen. (We learned that some cluster bombs have a mechanism in it like a gyroscope. When the mechanism spins 2400 times, the TNT explodes, the bomb shell constructed with embedded pellets which disengage at the time of the explosion. What was told to us is that the mechanism may not have completed it 2400 spins. When someone touches it, it could trigger the 2400 spins to complete and then explode, even 30-40 years later.)
In conclusion, I suspect that after my rambling stream of consciousness, your feelings may be of sadness, shock, incredulity, or just plain disbelief. Don’t worry, I feel the same way. I have been traveling in Laos for no less than 9 times and I was never told that UXOs still exist and is a prevalent problem that is still killing people today. I just can’t believe that mankind can find so many constructive ways to destruct the lives and lands of these helpless and innocent people who cannot defend themselves against modern weapons of mass destruction. I have cried many tears since coming to this area. I hope that we all learn a lesson from this and that is to do whatever we can to make sure this never happens again. (I will never forget looking in the eyes of that Hmong farmer who lost his feet and hand only three weeks ago. It was a look of fear and helplessness as he raised his hands and his two legs. It was a swelling of tears as he looked at his wife and child as they entered the room. It’s one thing when you see pictures, see numbers, hear stories or even see maimed individuals in hospitals or many years later (as we have seen in a handicapped village where we built a preschool in Nongbia Village, Luang Prabang Province). It’s another thing when you are standing face to face with a new victim who shared his story with you with their family, but looking at them in their eyes, he is telling you another story.
Give Children A Choice is committed to helping to build more preschools in this area. It is the only way priority is given to clear large areas in a village that can be considered a safe. The government confirmed that they will always give first priority to clearing areas targeted for schools. Please make a donation to help build a preschool in Xieng Khouang Province. It will save lives, more than you can imagine. Donate at our website http://www.givechildrenachoice.org.
Please pass this onto someone you know who might be interested in helping us build more preschools for the Lao children. Read how preschools are helping the Lao children and its country. Again, their donation will help ensure not only an early head start with their formative year education AND also give them safe grounds for them to learn.
Peace,
Barbara Shimoda
Give Children A Choice
You can read some of my other blogs on facebook. There are many pictures that better illustrates what we do when we go to find poor villages to help.
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1235143880
Dear DJ,
I am impressed with your energy. I want to help by donating to school building project but I don’t see paypal. What to do now?
I hope you are well.
ai Amphone
Sabaidee Ai Amphone,
I will contact you when I get back on how you can help with the school directly, which ever you want to help. I have given $50.00 that you donated to Houaylao Elementary School to help them get some fans. There was no electricity at the school and so I had a line put in so the school can have electricity and the teachers didn’t have a budget for fans or anything.
The next time you go to Laos and to Pakse you can visit Houaylao Elementary School and see your full name registered under the donation. The teachers and students sent their best wishes and a big thank you to you.
Darly, thank you. You are a great ambassador. I didn’t expect all that but thanks again. I will certainly visit Pakse again. I have relatives there.
Good luck to you,
Ai AP
Everyone have some sort of tie back to the South. The South (Tai Tài) will rise again.
Sabaidee Ai Amphone,
You are much welcome. I was told yesterday that they have electricity now and I will get the photos next week.
Dallas,
Don’t forget me. I am half Tai Tai too you know. I have Vientiane accent but I’m as dark as a typical Tai Tai.
Darly,
There are so much to learn about Laos. Laos is one place on earth I would like to tour. Now that I thought about it. Why spending money somewhere else. I just hope I can visit soon.
Ai Amphone
Greetings!
I’ve always wanted to visit Laos because I have a friend who is teaching English in Pakse. I admire your efforts to give children a chance for a better future. I want to be a part of your school building project. Please let me know how. I hope I can visit soon.
Best regards,
Jessa May Mendez
Cebu, Phils.
I’m such a firm believer in education and after seeing the condition of the school, I’m speechless. I want to help but too afraid of the negative repercussion from the political influences in the country. I’m planning to visit Lao ( E-Lai) for the first time in 2011. I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and fled the country during 1988. Anyway, I will enjoy the first-time visit.
Phon.vorana@intel.com
I have been planning this trip for quite sometime now, I don’t know how to react and still uncertain how much involvement do I want to participate in educating the native people. We’ll see.
“Life is not measured by
the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments
that take our breath away.”
Keep up the work on this website.
Thanks
John Vorana
Hi John,
I was recently informed by a former Lao embassador to the US that whatever you want to do will have to go through a proper channel via the US embassy in the US if you are from that country in particular. Many people think they can just go to Laos and pass out educational materials or start a project without informing the officials and obtaining a permission at the embassy. Doing so will result in fines and imprisonment.
Whatever project you want to start must be registered with the Lao embassy in your country. That way you can get proper credit and official approval from the government. This is to prevent cases like people passing out Bibles to the locals on the basis of coming to help with education and later distributing religious materials.
Hi Sao Darly, I just wanted to start off by saying how impressed I am by the commitment of yourself, the villagers and readers from Laovoices in this project. Truly inspirational. I have in mind a smaller project and it would be great if I could ask you a few questions by email in regards to this?
Thanks
I am so happy to know the efforts for children.
thanks
I am so embarrassed by Laos PDR Government. They are such a sorry Government I ever see. here all they government official driving luxury cars. and people suffering, barely have some to eat. very sorry government, no word to discribes. Of course I am Laotian who lived in USA. It’s break my heart to see all these school children has no proper classrooms. for how many years now 40 years that communist took control of Laos, and I nothing changed at all. it’s time for communist to goes.
Bravo to those give time and money to building school and a big thank to all givers.
I do agree with Laos govt. regarding to get an approval first, to prevant a religious spreading instead of education. I’d not want to see a mulism religious spread into Laos and take over her culture as it has done in Indonesia. When I saw Indonesai girls wearing stuffs that cover up all their face, I’m sad, especially in the 21th century and I do not believe Middle East culture and its religious are good culture to be adopted by any society or culture, especially for women and girls.
The poor and uneducated groups are vulnerable and more likely to loss one culture and identify to oil rich country to their attempt of spreading middle east religious and culture, Indonesai is a good example.
I want to believe mulism religious has a good foundation, but based on its current members, its practice, and it resistance and not willing to update and make progress with time; especially, when it not speak out loud enough against those committed evil in the name of its religious (it’s as same as condone or say it’s ok and justify those evil actions); I’m uncomfortable and associate mulism as negative religious and culture.
I have wonderfull have many tourist visit to Lao and test of Lao food , Tradition and lao live style. I hope many many from the world to help children us to tech many many good to them
Regards,
Seng