Blankets and mosquito nets for ethnic minority boarding schools in Laos

CWS-Laos

Some 1,500 students, ages 6-19, who are attending ethnic minority boarding schools in remote areas of northern Laos, are receiving blankets and mosquito nets through a program of Church World Service to make them more comfortable and help keep them safe from disease. The children, from 75 villages, are attending school in the northern districts of Luang Prabang Province and in all districts of Phongsaly and Oudomxay Provinces.

The children, who come from poor families and villages, must attend boarding schools because there are no schools in their villages. In the winter months, many of the younger children drop out of school and return home because they have no blankets or warm clothing to ward off the cold.

Malaria is also common in these areas and the mosquito nets help provide an important barrier against contracting the disease.

Support for Church World Service helps make this project, a complement to the CWS basic primary education program, possible.

Updated 2/12/2008

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