Communiqué

The Humpty Dumpty Institute

Monthly Communiqué from Laos

November 2007

The major activity in November for the HDI-led demining and school feeding program in Laos was the visit by HDI's new spokesperson, Ms. Mary Wilson of the Supremes. The visit included briefings in Vientiane by HDI's partners, International Relief & Development (IRD) and Mine Advisory Group (MAG), as well as a briefing at the US Embassy. The two-day field trip included a visit to a number of the program's field sites and concluded with a demolition of UXO items. Ms. Wilson's suggestion to plant fruit trees at the participating schools was well-received and immediately included in the program design.

Mary Wilson with Laotian schoolchildren

Activities in the school-feeding program continue to grow and all elements of the original project design are now under way. In November, 187,892 snacks and 11,550 take-home rations were distributed. 108 of the 110 schools in the program reported that all students attended at least 80 percent of classes. The project also distributed $16,900 in the local currency to the Education Committee to purchase additional food and ancillary items in support of the daily snack activities. 29 schools are in various stages of making improvements including the construction of 12 latrines and 2 new school buildings. 29 schools in Gnommalat and Mahaxsay were trained in school gardening and 39 schools have been provided with seeds and equipment. 22 of those have started planting.

MAG has largely completed the original clearance requirements and a no-cost extension has been established to enable the continued activities by the MAG teams until a potential renewal of funding. The no-cost extension will run until the end of January 2008. MAG teams are now returning to many of the project sites in close coordination with IRD to undertake deeper searches on areas that require deep excavation for latrines or foundations.

During this reporting period, all teams were deployed in target task sites and conducted intrusive clearance on school grounds. The teams are now operational in all three target districts of Gnommalat, Mahaxsay and Boulapha. The HDI teams have also received help on some of the school ground clearance tasks from other MAG clearance teams active in Khammouane. Community Liaison teams are currently ahead of the planned schedule for mapping target schools and have now begun to survey and map new clearance requirements in schools identified by IRD.

In November, clearance activities were carried out in 9 new school sites of which 3 also received clearance for other school improvement activities such as gardens. In addition, the teams also cleared land for other school improvement activities in 15 schools, of which 14 were previously cleared by the HDI teams and one was cleared by another MAG team. The total area cleared within the schools for the month is 80,389 m² (63,770 m² of new school grounds and 16,628 m² in other improvements). Since the project's start, the demining teams have cleared a total of 934,700 m².

Mr. Bounkham Vongxayalath,
IRD field monitoring officer

Staff Profile of the Month:
Mr. Bounkham Vongxayalath

This month's profile features IRD field monitoring officer Mr. Bounkham Vongxayalath.

Mr. Bounkham, 49 years old, completed college at the Agriculture Institute (Fishing & Livestock) in Vientiane. He then worked at the Ministry of Agriculture for 18 years. He later joined the Drugs Reduction Project in Phalavenk. He has also worked in Xayaboury and Phongsaly provinces.

He joined IRD as a field monitoring officer in June 2007 when he was assigned to Boualapha District. He liaises with the community and coordinates with local government staff, especially with the district education office. He usually travels by motorbike to follow up on the activities in the villages. He monitors warehouse and kitchen construction and the delivery of both commodities and non-food items to the schools in the program. He sometimes monitors the school feeding program which includes the preparation of corn-soy blend snacks and the distribution of take-home rations. He conducts training workshops on the management of the school feeding program for the Village School Feeding Committee members. He submits weekly reports to the monitoring manager at the IRD Gnommalat office.

If he finds issues during his work in the villages, he seeks to solve the problem immediately. If he cannot solve it, he discusses the issue with the IRD monitoring manager and project manager to find the best solution.

Mr. Bounkham says he is happy to work with IRD because the work is challenging. He admits that it is sometimes difficult for him to work in the villages because he cannot always understand the dialect of the villagers.

Mr. Bounkham's wife works at Lao Plaza Hotel in Vientiane. His 12-year-old daughter attends secondary school and his 9-year-old son is at primary school.

For more information on HDI's work in Laos, please contact Dr. Robert Keeley, the HDI Laos Country Director, at Bob.Keeley@thehdi.org.