Dear friends, family and all the wonderful people who support our work with the children of Laos and their families to keep them healthy, educated and safe.
It's been another interesting and challenging year for Lao-Kids. Our aim is to fill the “gaps” where traditional charities or NGOs don’t work or overlook. Because of the way we work, we are able to provide “micro” assistance that can make a huge difference to people’s lives, for example the provision of vegetable seeds and farming equipment to a poor family, or bus fares for a family to take a sick child to hospital.
All credit must go to Ruth and her family who do all the hard work of buying the required items, driving to the orphanages/ethnic schools (in one case, a 2-hour drive) and ensuring that the correct people receive what’s required. Also the amount of time they spend talking with respected members of the community to identify areas of need. This takes hours and hours of work.
Once again we would like to ask everyone reading this to please be very careful when you are travelling and feel that you want to help those people less fortunate than yourself to always make sure that you money will actually go to the correct people. It is always better to donate via a recognised organisation than give to individuals "on the ground" (no matter how convincing these people's stories are, and no matter how much they promise that the money will be used legitimately). Most countries have a number of organisations that work to improve people's lives and that can be trusted to ensure that money is used for legitimate purposes.
And finally, wishing you all a wonderful, happy holiday season and a 2012 which brings us peace, joy and prosperity.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment