Adopt-a-Village Report

Lead jungle guide Montri Po-Amart recently returned with news and photographs from the ethnic tribal 'Bru' village (Ban Nahom, Khammouane Province, LAOS), where he undertook a humanitarian mission as part of the North by NorthEast Adopt-a-Village program.

Ban Nahom Villagers

Important assistance work done at Nahom was made possible only by the generous $650 USD donation of Mr. Jeff Hudgens and the WestGate Church of San Jose California. More notable even, is the fact that children of Jeff's family, friends, and from the church donated their coins to provide the blackboards and chalk for the children of Nahom!

Mr. Hudgens became acquainted with Nahom in 2002 when local villagers helped us locate Jeff's father's Vietnam war era air-crash site near there.

During his trip, Jeff was greatly touched by the BRU tribesmen's hospitality, and wanted to find a way to help these people who captured his heart. Jeff discovered that basic amenities which we take for granted in Western society are considered luxuries in remote central Laos. Jeff & North by North-East thus began long term planning with village headmen & elders to find ways to improve the basic quality of life....for the children first.

Donors like Jeff are not rich, but they have big hearts; they want to help, but must take care to choose their work wisely. The biggest challenge in this case is to determine what can be done on a limited budget, to benefit the largest number of needy people.

As the rainy season now fast approaches, and as muddy roads become impassable at that time, the goal of Montri's trip was simply to supply the teachers & school children and village elders with more needed school supplies, and a few useful general medicines which will ease hardship when the roads are closed.

Nahom's remoteness makes this relatively simple. Here the most basic medicines such as fever-breaking aspirin and antiseptic cream are practically unheard of! A simple insect bite can be lead to gangrene, which will take a life and effect a dozen others. Ironically, Laos Government policy dictates that villages supply children with uniforms & books, but in Nahom and villages like it, teachers and school kids write their lessons on the dirt floor.

As liaison and instrument of Jeff's work this month, Montri purchased and delivered the following items and more to Nahom village:

1). 6 black boards - Mon had to buy 6 huge plyboards, matte black paint, and the framework to surround them. He transported these to the village by using public busses east on route 12 going toward the VN border. To transport the large panels south over the last several miles of rice fields, Mon hired an "Iron Buffalo" and a trailer. Rulers, chalk, notepads and spiral notebooks, pens & pencils for all 79 students were distributed by Mon, the teachers, and the 3 headmen. These are some of the most pressing needs of students.

2). Sports equipment - 3 soccer balls, 3 volley balls & nets, 3 takraw balls. Students number nearly 80 at school. While Jeff already supplied some of these items, we thought they needed more.

2). Medicines - Aspirin, Paracetemol, Antiseptic cream, Hydrogen peroxide, Bandages, cold medicine, Anti-Malaria drug. Older villagers die every year simply from fever, or from the common flu. Small cuts become infected to threaten life. Malaria can kill before a villager can get to help. So we selected medicines which are the easiest to administer, and which hopefully would do the most good for the most people.

3). Other - 2 aluminium water coolers for the school. We chose these because they will last longer than the less expensive plastic models.

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