Communiqué
The Humpty Dumpty Institute
Monthly Communiqué from Laos
February/March 2008
The Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI) is continuing its progress on its UXO clearance and school feeding and rehabilitation project in Laos. During the months of February and March 2008, 322,759 daily snacks were distributed, bringing the total number of snacks served to date to 1,077,151. Moreover, take home rations were provided to 11,713 girls and 11,884 boys for a total of 23,968 for both months. All of the 110 schools in the program reported that all students attended at least 80 percent of classes.
School improvements continue apace as well. Sixteen more projects were completed in March bringing the total to 36 completed projects. This number includes 19 latrines, 14 floors and 3 new classroom blocks. Fifty two projects are ongoing and 17 are yet to start. In the school gardening component, 35 school gardens have been planted with 33 already producing food to supplement the snacks provided through HDI’s program. Of the 50 schools targeted for this activity, 47 have received seeds and tools. Digging for wells has already begun.
A project review meeting was held on February 4th and 5th at the project site with Lao government officials from the national, provincial and district level. This meeting included visits to selected communities, the project warehouse, and the meeting itself, covering improved coordination with government staff, challenges associated with working with the communities, and implementation issues. The government expressed their overall satisfaction with the progress of the project and recognized its contribution to increasing registration and regular school attendance of primary school children.
At the end of February, a shipment of approximately 6,600 school kits and 7,050 quilts arrived at the project warehouse. The school kits contain notebooks, crayons, pencils, a pencil sharpener, colored paper, erasers, a ruler, scissors and a bag. The distribution of school kits and quilts began in March in Mahasay District. A local Education officer joined in the distribution which was very well received. Each student in the target villages will receive a school kit and a quilt and teachers will be provided with a quilt. School kits and quilts were distributed to 229 students in two primary schools.
The training of Education Development Committee (EDC) members from 14 communities was completed on March 31st in Boulapha town. Twenty four EDC members and two officials from the Ministry of Education participated. The trainers provided an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the EDC in the community and led the participants through an assessment of their current accomplishments. They also began to prepare action plans for the coming months and reviewed their coordination with the school feeding and school improvement project. An additional training will be conducted in the coming months for the communities that were not able to send participants.
On the UXO side of the project, a total of 15 clearance sites were completed or are ongoing by HDI teams in February and March resulting in the clearance of 132,174 m². In 12 villages, emergency or spot UXO tasks were completed, removing or destroying 146 UXO items. Community liaison teams mapped 16 sites identified for boreholes in Boulapha and Mahasay districts and one in Gnommalath district for a World Food Program bridge which will also benefit HDI target communities. Since the HDI program began, a total of 1,438,647 m² has been cleared and 2,270 UXO destroyed.
For more information on HDI's work in Laos, please contact Dr. Robert Keeley, the HDI Laos Country Director, at Bob.Keeley@thehdi.org
Children receiving school kit and quilt distribution from local Education officer
