Phoudindaeng Organic Farm

Sipping some home made mulberry wine sitting in the restaurant of Vangvieng Organic Farm, I listen to Mr. Thi, telling me the history of this place.

Everything begun in 1995, when Mr. Thi came back to his home town to make an old dream come true. After several years working in NGOs and governmental departments, all related to natural resources, he finally set up his own farm.

More than a farm, this place is a more a community.

It started with mulberry trees. The leaves were used to feed some silk worms, used to weave silk fabrics. It takes lot of time and work to get there, around 100 days. To be more cost efficient, Mr. Thi decided to make some tea with the mulberry leaves. This was the beginning of a long list of activities made in the farm by and for the community. Now, they grow organic vegetables and fruits, goats, pigs, and of course mulberry trees.

The main goal of all this is to help people in this area to get skills to earn a living. Also, it helps the kids to have a fair education. Most of them couldn’t go to school because it was too far from their home, and those who could go to school had just a it of rice for breakfast and shared a salad for 5 or 6 for lunch.

At first, some of the money made by the farm was used to buy those children bicycles so that they can go to school. But after few years, the bikes were damaged, and it was expensive to repair them. Enters AVAN (Asian Volunteer Action Network), from the Korean commission of UNESCO. They donated the farm a school bus. Thanks to this bus, 30 students could be brought to school every morning. They now have a second one, which allows 60 children to have access to education.

As for the nutrition part, the milk from the goats is a source of calcium and is a good complement to the rice for their breakfast. Also, the profit made by the farm is used to buy them some good meals, and also the school uniform.

The restaurant, the guest house, the “Mojito Bar”, the silk, the tea… all this is to help the children.

In addition, a Belgium youngster, Ward is creating a curriculum for private evening English classes, for free. To teach them, volunteers from the guesthouse can apply and give time to the local youth, which is very grateful and very demanding. In a village of 1,200 people, around 50 children attend those classes.

Lately, AVAN is also creating a library, a youth center, an environmental group…

So if you plan to travel in Laos and want to do something useful, take some time to help this community that needs volunteer. Working in the garden, teaching English, milk or feed the goats, there will always be something you can do.

For more information, visit the farm’s website

www.laofarm.org

or Stay Another Day

www.stayanotherday.org

Comments

[Sciencewriting]

Great blog! The information you provide is quiet helpful, why I was not able to find it earlier. Anyways I’ve subscribed to your feeds, keep the good work up.