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Laos

  • 60 sponsorship programmes
  • 1,025  sponsored children
  • 40 local volunteers
  • 5 overseas volunteers

Laos is a predominantly mountainous, rural country.  Often called ‘the country of a million elephants’, it suffers from a lack of infrastructure and the means to improve its educational system.

A high level of absenteeism among teachers in addition to the mediocre course material in rural areas is a huge obstacle to improving Laos’ educational system. Many children leave school after primary school, mainly due to the poverty of their family and the fact that secondary schools are located too far away for them to attend.

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  • 7.2 million inhabitants of which  59.3% live in rural areas
  • Literacy level: 79.9%
  • Currency: Lao kip
  • Ethnicities: Lao Loum 68%, Lao Theung 22%, Lao Soung including Hmong and Yao 9%, Vietnamese / Chinese 1%
  • Main religion: Buddhism 67%

CHILDREN OF THE MEKONG’S ACTIVITY IN LAOS:

Children of the Mekong child sponsorship programme allow providing education to the most underprivileged children in rural Laos. Sponsoring a child in Laos is key to fight school drop out.

  • Supporting the poorest families, economically and socially, and enabling our sponsored children to continue their schooling, especially in the Takhek and Pakse regions as well as the areas North of Luang Prabang.
  • Supporting private schools which are open to the poorest children.
  • Helping students living in isolated areas continue their education with the support of boarding houses close to middle schools, high schools, or universities.
  • Guiding and supporting young people through professional training courses (English studies, the hotel industry…) to enable them to enter the workforce, and help them develop as people in their own right so that they can be open to the world around them and become part of society.
  • Increasing access to education by building or renovating primary schools as well as boarding houses for children in middle school and high school.

Sponsor a child

OUR NEWS IN LAOS

Children of the Mekong’s programmes start in Ventiane in Laos’ capital under the initiative of its founder: Rene Pechard.

1958

The organisation is forced to leave the country after the communist take-over on December 2nd, but continues to help the Laotian people in the refugee camps.

1975

Children of the Mekong returns to Laos and continues its programmes there.

1996