Child sponsorship update from Pakse, Laos

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Pakse, Laos from Winter 2008.

Pakse is one of the big towns of Lao P.D.R and 667 Km far from Vientiane Capital City. There are many places of religious and historical interest: It is full of natural beauty which become one of the tourism destinations and attract a number of tourists who come to visit there. The people lives harmoniously and very friendly here, help each other in the difficult situation. Agriculture is the main occupation of them and some foreigners come to invest in this field. Pakse is now under process of development and we are sure that one day Pakse would be one of the most developed town of Lao P.D.R

Due to your generous support our work is successful step by step. Hereby we would like to present some prominent events in our village to you. We have now 110 children (52 girls, 58 boys) in our village in which 8 children were new admitted into different houses, 20 children at Youth House, 34 young boys and 25 girls at boarding school and at hostels. 16 becoming adults are living independently. Until now the grand total number of children under the care of our SOS Children’s Village Pakse is 189 (77 girls, 112 boys).

We are now in the humid season from June to November; it is raining very hard and causes to flood in some flat areas following after that some infectious diseases such as Diarrhea, Leptospirosis, Hongkong foot, Conjonctivitis, Dengue fever, Malaria and others. To prevent of them, we invited the specialist on infectious diseases from outside to give lectures on basis of sanitary education and demonstrated how to take care the sick children and how to prevent those mentioned diseases. Besides that our SOS Mothers and children together continued cleaning off the grass around their houses and destroying the places which could produce the mosquitoes in and outside their houses.. Furthermore we followed up closely the health of some children who got some diseases as Epilepsy, hepatitis, blood disease and others and they were under the control of the specialist.

We all need the education which helps us to understand the life and universe; we acquire the knowledge through the education and it makes us wise and skillful. Therefore the education becomes a precious wealth and the basis of the development of the country.

Children's education in Laos

In June-July of last academic year 2007-08, 23 young boys and girls finished their high school: 1 girl could attend to National University, 11 at Vocational Technical Training School and 11 at Teacher Training College.

The academic year 2008-09 started one month earlier than last year since 4th August 2008 only in Pakse district area because the Lao government is honorably committed to organize the National Sports Competition which will be held since 13th December 2008. Our children are enrolling at different schools as below: 7 at our SOS Nursery School, 52 at primary level, 30 at lower secondary level, 41 at upper secondary level, 2 young girls at National University in Vientiane Capital city, 12 at provincial University in Pakse, 20 at Vocational Technical Training School, 19 at Teacher Training College, 2 young girls at Agriculture and Forest School, 1 young girl at Sculpture and Art School in Savannakhet province, 1 young boy at Police School, 1 boy at Teacher Training College in Saravane Province.

Besides that we arranged some activities in and outside the village: we enjoyed celebrating the SOS Day by our Buddhist way to express our gratitude to our Founder, Dr Hermann Gmeiner , following with dance performance and sport competition. The excursion was at Watt Phou Festival (Rocky Castle temple festival) where belongs of the cultural and historical site and which was registered as the 2nd word heritage site of Lao P.D.R since 25.12.2002.

Mothers and children had a funny picnic at Tad Fead Water fall in Sekong province, 160 Km far from village; our 70 children joined the Buddhist Festival procession.
On the occasion of development of Lao PDR our SOS Children’s Village and 17 co-workers received the labor medals from the President of Lao PDR and 20 co-workers received the congratulations certificate too.

Together with their studying and activities we paid attention to take care of their health and their habit. We all brought them up to be good children in the society.

Dear Friends and Sponsors, your kind help and continuous support enable us to continue our work; hereby on behalf of all of our children, mothers and everyone here, allow us to express our deepest thanks and great gratitude for your kindness and wish all of you a good health, success in your work and prosperity in your family life.

“ MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009”
Yours Sincerely,

Mr Soumata DENGCHAMPA, National Director and Mr Bouakhay KEOPHOXAY, Village Director