Opening Doors to Education Worldwide

EFK Visit to Rotary Club of Vientiane Capital Laos

The short summary of my July 2008 trip to Laos is as follows:

Dirk sat next to Country Director, Thuy Pham (thuy@roomtoread.org),with www.RoomToRead.org Vietnam from HongKong to SGN (they have some amazing resources in place which you can take advantage of). Thuy explained how RTR-Vietnam is working on a project with QualComm & Vietnam's government to provide Internet to rural Vietnam. My understanding is they longer-term goal is to provide computer learning but they realize that Internet access will be an important building block that still needs to be put in place. Currently RTR programs which includes Libraries, Scholarships for Girls, English and computer labs. To date, the computer labs have been mostly for middle schools and the software that RTR recommends is MS-Office so thei kids can learning focuses on Writing documents, Desktop Publishing and working with Spreadsheets. Few computer labs (if any) are focusing on the primary education. Thuy think that computer learning for kids 5-12 will be important and might good to include with the QualComm pilot.

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Arrived a day early (due to flight delays by United to SGN), we spent the 1st two nights at a friend on a one-year teaching assignment at the National University of Laos.

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Our first meeting was scheduled at the National Library of Laos with Madam Kongdeuane Nettavong (kong_nettavong@hotmail.com) where 1) she explained her role as the Director for the National Library of Laos and 2) She asked for us to help pilot www.e-Learningforkids.com & www.ClassmatePC.com at one school close to Vientiane Capital. My understanding is that Madam works in the Ministry of Information – specifically she is responsible for managing the allocations of books for school children in the libraries through out the country. From looking at the collection of books in the newest library built by www.LibraryofLaos.org we visited after our meeting with Madame, it looks like when NGOs donate books to Laos, they are Madames responsibilities to allocate them prudently. We also learned from www.RoomToRead.org Laos that Madame gives them books for the libraries that they build.

When I asked Madame how many primary schools are in in Laos, I wrote down about 8,600 schools. I thought she mentioned there are less middle schools.

Madam also showed us a copy of a book she co-authored called, LAO Folktales (ISBN: 978-1-59158-345-5) which looked like a nice treasure.

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Visited the newest www.LibaryofLaos.org library in rural village located 75 km north of Vientiane Capital. The village has about 640 residents (130 families). The village chief (also the town librarian) asked us to give him money so he can buy some more books for the kids ... Dirk responded to the village chief that we will ask www.RoomToRead.org (an NGO) if they have books for his new public library.

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Meeting with Somphet PHONGPHACHANH (somphet@roomtoread.org), Country Director for www.RoomToRead.org Laos, RTR-Laos works through Laos' Ministry of Education since their programs include teaching English and scholarships for girls. When I asked if RTR-Laos would give the village chief books for his public library, the response was positive and she explained that the village chief needs to fill out a RTR application. RTR will be building over 120 libraries in Laos in 2008 (the three year goal is about 362 new libraries). Somphet told us she liked www.e-Learningforkids.com & www.ClassmatePC.com but warned that Laos need high-speed Internet access which is an important project under the leadership of the National Science Council - RTR-Laos was supported of working together with the Laos government and other NGOs. RTR-Laos reports into a regional office based in India headed up by Mr. Dew. Somphet suggested that we get permission for her to work with EFK from her boss, Mr. Dew. Dirk promised to try to set up a meeting with Nick van Dam (founder of EFK) and Mr. Dew (RTR Asia Regional Director).

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We spent a couple of hours sight seeing by visiting a temple and the morning market Local products appeared to be Laos handmade silk and products made from bamboo.

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We had a wonderful meeting with the Rotary Club of Vientiane Capital Laos. The Rotary Club of VN Capital was formed in 2005 – they have a small club with lot of energy. We established the main contact would be Mr. Anthony Coenen (a_coenen2004@yahoo.com) who recently moved to VN Capital from the Netherlands. Also a club member is Ir. Somphone PHANOUSITH (phanusith@yahoo.com, sphanusith@gmail.com), Permanent Secretary of the National Science Council who is working on the high-speed internet backbone project for Laos. Mr.PHANOUSITH also requested we focus on a single, pilot project with www.e-Learningforkids.com & www.ClassmatePC.com to learn more. Dirk promised to follow up with Intel to request how to order Intel-powered CMPC for the pilot project. Rotary Club of Vientiane Capital offered to be the local contact to work through if we can secure resources for an EFK/Intel-powered CMPC computer classroom pilot in Laos.

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On our last day of our Laos trip we spent over two hours at the Sengsourigna Children Music Culture Center (SCMCC) ran by Noi SENGSURIYA (senoy2976@yahoo.com, www.noi-scmcc.com). Noi, former Miss Vientiane 2002, demonstrated great personal talent and talent working with young kids. The SCMCC vision is to preserve and main Lao cultural identity through the teaching of dance, music and the other arts by creating opportunities for children to develop their school study performance and realize their dreams and aspirations at the same time helping Lao as a nation to develop and expand their cultural infrastructure. The SCMCC was established to serve as promotion for education and culture for children, particularly to those who are disadvantaged. Noi shared with us that through music, art, and culture, it's a therapy to help in advancing children school academic ability.

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The little I learned about Laos background during my three days of meetings were: Currently the entire country is only a little more than six million people – the least populated country in SE Asia. When I asked our guide coordinated by www.LibraryofLaos.org, he shared that before the Vietnam war, the population was about four and half million but after the war was only one and half million. The best accounts he was aware of estimated about two and half million Laotians lost their lives in the war. This level of lost is staggering to me to think that over half the population perished – mostly by American bombers trying to battle the VC who built the Ho Chi Min trail through part of Laos – not to mention the large number of live land mines that still create a significant risk to many parts fo Laos. The numbers also indicate probably another 500,000 Laotians relocated overseas (e.g., I found on Google that 10,000 Laotians are living in the Elgin, IL area – which would be serviced by Rotary District 6440 which my Rotary club is a member of).
Vientiane, the capital of Laos, with 600,000 residents is amazingly quite and laid back. It appears to have the feel of a typical community you might find on Route 66 in the late 1950's. Road congestion doesn't exist – the traffic doesn't appear to go faster than 25 miles an hour “anywhere”. Shops and schools don't open until after 9 am and most everything winds down by four in the afternoon.

Interesting tidbit: NY Times recently ranked Laos as the #1 hottest travel destination for 2008 (more on http://www.nytimes.com/ref/travel/20071209_WHERE_GRAPHIC.html#goto1). The travel guides I have found, and there has been few, point out that Laos is the most undeveloped of the countries in SE Asia. With 800,000 tourists visiting Laos annually, more than half arrive using the Friendship Bridge from Thailand and only 10% arrive through the airport. If you are looking for rural Asia and inexpensive hotels, Laos has much to offer. Vientiane Capital appears to be more expensive then the rest of Laos since the capital needs to import all their food and products – but it's not hard to enjoy a nice meal, a beer or iced coffee for a $1 per person. The travel agent www.LibraryOfLaos.org recommended, Phoutsady Keoxayachak (phout_k@yahoo.com) helped arranged for scheduling meetings and being available to help with logistics, but appeared to try to over-charge us by 500% of a reasonable rate – it's best to be careful not to be ripped off by the local vendors looking to take advantage of NGO's and charities coming to their country to help – it's a little unfortunate.

We heard mixed messages on basic needs such as hospitals and roads – some told us they were improving for the people of Laos, but others explained they don't have health plans such as HMOs and 80% of their 14,000 km of roads are unpaved. It's clear they still need significant help with much of the infrastructure such as water management, education and developing their untapped natural resources which could increase the exports to neighboring countries. We also learned public schools are so far behind that they have little to offer to kids – most kids attend private schools which are too expensive for most families.

We learned that Laos' strongest relationship for commerce is Thailand and for political alliances probably Vietnam. Laos started broadcasting their first public television station two years ago and it appears the government tightly controls the people of Laos and open thinking is still not easy.

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Pictures from Trip to Vientiane Capital, Laos (July 17 – 19, 2008)