Anticipated Cost: $12,000
Leader: Mr Lancaster with World Volunteer CAS Element: Service |
When: Sunday 10 to Friday 15 November
Where: Luang Prabang, Laos Who: Years 10 to 12 (2019-2020) |
Take the opportunity to immerse yourself in provincial Laos culture as you stay in rural village homes, eat local food and experience day-to-day village life.
We provide service in the form of constructing infrastructure which will prepare the 14 villages of the Seuang River Valley in Laos for creating their own sustainable income by improving access to education and improving the standard of living. This is a highly successful long term project run by West Island school and Buffalo Tours which is now in its ninth year. WIS is well known and well respected in the community having already successfully completed a kindergarten, part of a suspension bridge which is now linking many communities, the foundations for a septic tank and toilets/showers for a school of 800 students, 2 dormitories for 60 students, the foundations for a kindergarten and the plastering and flooring of eight classrooms. Our service is mainly in construction work aimed at improving the infrastructure of the valley, with a focus on providing communities with the fundamental facilities needed to ensure a safe and engaging environment for education to take place. The aim of the project is to aid in the construction of an eco-bungalow that will provide the village with a source of income through tourism. Creating the eco-bungalow involves lots of hands-on manual work such as cutting straw, carrying buckets filled with mud and mixing them together to make adobe bricks. |
We have committed ourselves to the support of this project to its completion. In addition to the physical work of construction in a service environment our students are also exposed to other activities which are designed to allow them to appreciate Lao Culture and Traditions, the reasons that led to this country being immersed in poverty and what role our students can take on later in their lives to help other communities in other countries beat the poverty trap. Other activities include Temple Visits, Lessons in Lao language and culture. Home stay at one of the Seuang River Valley villages.
Teaching local children in their schools, traditional Basi Su Khouan ceremony, Mekong River boat trip, Pak Ou Buddha Caves, basket weaving using bamboo, a cultural tour of the Unesco World Heritage town of Luang Prabang, traditional Lao boat racing, and lastly, but most importantly they have time to share their own experiences with the villagers each night of the trip by performing songs, dancing and swapping stories and games at community events set up by the village. |
You will be expected to fundraise with your teams for the projects involved prior to participating in this experience.
Students will also organise and run a number of fund raising events prior to the trip and there is an expectation that each student will raise a minimum of $1000 to go towards the cost of materials for our construction work.
Students will also organise and run a number of fund raising events prior to the trip and there is an expectation that each student will raise a minimum of $1000 to go towards the cost of materials for our construction work.