For more than 23 years, the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine has supported the Laos University Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine in various ways including the development of a Family Medicine Specialist training program with the goal of improving rural health in Laos. The first leader of this project, Dr. Clarence Guenter, encouraged the members of the Calgary team to look for other opportunities to support the communities in which they taught. In 2009, Typhoon Ketsana devastated southern Laos and our planned medical education trip became a typhoon relief endeavour. As a result, the Meuang Kang School rebuilding effort was launched. The University of Calgary endorsed the creation of the non-profit Laos Community Development Initiative, LCDI, and so we began. 
 
Over the past 12 years, primarily using funds donated by Calgarians, we have supported three schools in Laos’ Champassak Province, along the Mekong River. This is a collaborative effort with the principals and staff of the schools, as well as with the families of the students and the village leaders. Regular meetings allow the communities to identify their priority needs, develop budgets and detailed invoices and present them to our team for consideration. Over time, the villagers have undertaken to do much of the physical labour required to build or repair the school, at a tremendous cost saving.
 
Ms. Noy Mettasak Phosanarak, the owner of the Pakse Hotel, our home away from home, is the manager of the project. She buys the requested supplies, provides the money for construction and renovations, oversees the work, liaises with the bank and keeps meticulous records of financial interactions. She visits the schools, which are an hour and a half away from Pakse, sometimes accessible only by boat, on a regular basis.
 
Meuang Kang, Sisaveng, and Batoum Panon Schools, all located within a kilometer of each other, have been designated ‘model schools’ by the Laos government — a great honour. They are seen as providing an enriched education and exemplary community support. The villages and families around the schools benefit from our sourcing of materials from their stores, along with internet access, computers, electricity, clean drinking water, a community centre built on the school property, provision of school supplies, financial support for the volunteer teachers, sports equipment and uniforms for the school children. Over the past 12 years, over $100K has been injected into the local economy through this project.
 
U of C medical students and residents have been part of the team over the years and have benefitted from the exposure to the realities of life in rural Laos. In addition to teaching medical topics to residents, nurses, doctors and other health care providers, they get to help in the children’s classrooms and see first-hand the benefits of our involvement in the communities.
 
We hope to continue to raise funds and support these and other schools for many years to come. It has changed the lives of the people we support in immeasurable ways.

January 2023 Newsletter
It’s 2023 and we haven’t been to Laos since November 2019. We miss our friends and colleagues dearly, but fortunately, our absence doesn’t mean the schools have not been running, holding their own, and continue to require our support! Read more….