You’re Making a Difference Here
LAOS
In Laos, one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia, a lack of educational infrastructure is one of the greatest barriers to accessing a quality education (BBC News Asia). 27% of people in Laos are illiterate, with even higher illiteracy rates amongst ethnic minorities (World Bank 2014).
Pencils of Promise works with 104 communities in Laos to ensure that our students overcome these, and other, barriers to accessing a quality education. To date, PoP has impacted over 13,000 students in Laos.
LUANG PRABANG
Luang Prabang Province, located in northern Laos, sits at the intersection of the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers. Although a beautiful area, Luang Prabang lacks sufficient educational infrastructure.
PoP has built over 104 schools in Luang Prabang Province, working in collaboration with communities to couple school builds with teacher training, in order to ensure that our students are benefitting from access to both educational infrastructure and quality instruction.
Before the PoP School Build
When our team first visited the school in Nong Khiaw, Laos, they found students being taught in an overcrowded space that wasn’t big enough to support the amount of students attending school. There were three classrooms, with over fifty students per classroom. On top of the overcrowding, the school did not have enough furniture for all students to sit at desks, making it a less than ideal learning environment.
Your Impact with the New PoP School
You recognized and responded to the needs of the Nong Khiaw community by helping PoP build a new three-classroom school, the Nong Khiaw Primary School. Teachers, parents and community members were dedicated and committed to the project, contributing up to 20 percent of resources and labor. The Ministry of Education was also supportive of this project and helping the community throughout the build process. Now that the school is completed, we’ll mount a plaque, honoring your generous contribution and concluding tireless work to build a school equipped to serve its students properly. You made this school build for the students of Nong Khiaw possible and helping to create a safe, strong foundation where they’ll be able to learn and realize their potential and promise.
