Keep checking back here for the latest  news and progress

To see some recent photos from our work with the orphanages, please visit http://laokids2010.shutterfly.com

A Very Special Christmas Gift

At this time of year, we often spend ages trying to find the “perfect” gift for each of our family and friends. The dilemma - what to get someone who has everything??

 What about a beautiful Thank You Certificate from the Luang Prabang Government Orphanage School?

 

Just donate US$20 or more to the orphanage via its web site (www.lao-kids.org) and tell us the name you’d like on the certificate. We can then either email the certificate to you for printing and posting, or email it directly to anyone you nominate (if you also let us know the relevant email address).  

LUANG PRABANG GOVERNMENT ORPHANAGE SCHOOL

As of December 2009, the Luang Prabang Government Orphanage School has 517 resident children, ranging in age from about 5 years old and up. This is an increase in numbers of more than 50 children this year.

Our role is to raise money in order to provide the children with items such as warm clothes, medicines, personal health items and extra food.

There are no administrative costs in the work we do. All coordination, purchasing, delivery, distribution, plus any other required activities in Luang Prabang are done by Ruth and her family. The web page, PayPal account and Thank You Certificates are all handled by Chris who is based in Hong Kong. Every dollar / kip raised goes to providing for the children.

We never just give cash - we always spend time discussing with the Director the needs of the orphanage and the children - and we then purchase and deliver it. Often this involves organizing every child in the orphanage to individually receive his or her set of supplies… as you can imagine, it’s a time-consuming task! But we need to do this to ensure that every child receives what they require and that no one misses out for any reason.

Please note that this year the amount of provisions we have been able to give the children has been much less than previous years. Tourism has been down by almost 50 percent and people are watching their cash-flow more closely. So we haven’t had enough money to meet our goals every month. For example, our November delivery was only 1 cake of soap, 1 tin of fish, one packet of noodles, two school notebooks and one pencil per child. It came to $US800.

Please tell your friends and family about the orphanage and this web site… maybe they would like to donate instead of giving gifts to each other for Christmas?

WHAT WE REGULARLY DO

Every month we provide a set of provisions for each child (the quantities depending on how much money we have been able to raise):

·         soap, shampoo,  

·         toothbrush, toothpaste,  

·         washing detergent,  

·         tins of fish, instant noodles, yoghurt drinks - the children only get one meal a day at weekends so they eat these when they are hungry, plus the fish and yoghurt provide extra protein in their diet.

Whatever we buy, we always make sure that every child receives the same amount of items.

Every 2 weeks Ruth’s family cooks noodle soup with pork for protein at a cost of $US380 per time. If there isn’t enough money donated to cover the cost of this, Ruth’s family makes up the balance themselves.

Every year we provide each child with:

·         a towel,  

·         a complete set of school uniform,  

·         new shoes.

As required, we provide:

·         other clothing and shoes,  

·         school materials (notebooks, pencils, sharpeners, rubbers),  

·         mosquito nets,  

·         basic medicine (cold tablets, stomach upset, antiseptic creams, etc.

PAST SPECIAL PROJECTS

We have actively fund-raised in order to complete a number of “special” projects:

·         We built rabbit hutches and we buy the supplementary rabbit food – the children raise the rabbits for fresh protein to be added to their meals  

·         We helped open the small high school by supplying all of the classroom furniture and blackboards 

·         We raised funds and built a new toilet and shower block for the boys

CURRENT SPECIAL PROJECTS

·         We were invited to work with The Foundation for Promoting Education. This is a Lao charity which was convened in 2003 for the purpose of assisting The Lao Government Orphanage Schools in the Luang Prabang Province.  Its Honorary President is Mr. Somsavat LENGSAVAD, Deputy Prime Minister of the national government of Lao P.D.R.  

·         We raised enough money to provide new iron for the roofs of the old dormitories which were leaking so badly that the children were always damp.  

·         We are still trying to raise enough money so that the children can have three healthy meals a day. At the moment they only get one (or sometimes two) meals a day during the week, and maybe one meal at the weekend.  The children grow their own vegetables but they need a more balanced diet with more protein, fruit and eggs.  

·         We were contacted by a wonderful lady called Sisauphan who was born in Laos but now lives in America. She wanted to find out how she could help the children. We organized a discussion with her and the Foundation for Promoting Education - and the result is that she has undertaken to provide all the five orphanages in the Luang Prabang Province with iodised salt.

VISITING / VOLUNTEERING

·         We do not facilitate visits to the orphanage. If you do go to the schools yourselves please do not give money or purchased items to the teachers.  You might also like to keep in mind that there could be language difficulties and there are issues of children's privacy etc.  

·         However, if you would like to buy a package of items that you can deliver to the children when you are in Luang Prabang, please let us know and we can make arrangements for this.  

·         We do not facilitate volunteer work at the orphanage. 

NUMBUK ORPHANAGE AND ETHNIC HIGH SCHOOL

We also help out as much as possible at the Numbuk Orphanage School which now has about 500 children.  This orphanage is not easily accessible from Luang Prabang as it is in the north of the Luang Prabang Province. During 2009, we have provided clothing, school materials and some food to the children there.

We also, when possible, take notebooks and pencils to the Ethnic High School where all the children board and they need everything as well. 

NEW DORMITORY ROOFS

At last we are able to share with you the good news that the re-roofing of the orphanage dormitories has been completed.

We took the opportunity of the Summer school holidays, when many children return to their villages, to do the works. This means that the children will remain dry in their beds when they return to start the new school term.



To see more photos of the new roofs, click HERE

Again, a huge thank you to everyone who donated towards this project.

THE FOUNDATION FOR PROMOTING EDUCATION

A very exciting development is that we have been invited to work with The Foundation for Promoting Education.

This is a Lao charity which was convened in 2003 for the purpose of assisting The Lao Government Orphanage Schools in the Luang Prabang Province.

Its Honorary President is Mr. Somsavat LENGSAVAD, Deputy Prime Minister of the national government of Lao P.D.R.

To read about the foundation and its primary areas of focus, click HERE to display a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister.

We discuss the children's needs with relevant people in the foundation, and then we work together to ensure that the children not only have a better education by having better access to books, pencils etc. but also to ensure the children are healthy by providing more dormitories, eating halls and kitchens and toilet and washing facilities.

An example of how we are already working together is in the provision of iodised salt to the government orphanages. The children need the iodine so they can be healthier and more alert and better able to study as well as ensuring they do not develop goiters. We were approached (via our web site) by a wonderful Lao lady called Sisauphan who was born in Laos but now lives in America. She wanted to find out how she could help the children. We organized a discussion with her and the Foundation for Promoting Education - and the result is that she has undertaken to provide all the five orphanages in the Luang Prabang Province with iodised salt.

NUMBUK ORPHANAGE

We were recently asked by the government if we could help with another orphanage school where the children are also poorly off for all basic items.

It is a combined Orphanage and Ethnic School - some of the children are orphans and some come from distant villages where there is no education available. It is located in Numbuk, a small village about 3 hours drive north of Luang Prabang (but still in the Luang Prabang Province).

There are about 500 children at the orphanage school and they are in a similar situation as the Luang Prabang orphanage was when we first started working there… they lack almost all basic items of clothing, personal toiletries, good shelter, school materials, medicines, etc, etc, etc.

As the Luang Prabang orphanage school now has 517 children, so we need to work even harder to raise the funds to support all the children at both orphanages - a total of more than 1000 children!!

To see some photos of our first delivery of clothes and other essential items to the children at Numbuk please visit http://laokids2009.shutterfly.com