Luang Prabang Orphanage School

Help Do Something Positive for the Kids of Laos

The Luang Prabang Orphanage School is located some 5 kms from the historic centre of this UNESCO World Heritage city. The combined school and orphanage was been founded in 1986 but is little-known. It has classes of primary and secondary education and the last recorded numbers available were of some 400 children. These were either orphans, those that don't have an obvious father or mother or who are simply abandoned. All of them live on the premises of the school in very simple dorms.

The orphanage does what it can with very little funding. The amount allocated by the government for food per child, per day is 1000 kip (about 10 US cents) - sufficient to provide just one meal a day. There is no money available to purchase books, pens, soap or medications to treat the children when they are unwell. There is no money for clothing or warm, clean bedding.The children have lunch and dinner at the school however there is no budget for breakfast.

Visiting

We regret that the orphanage is not set up for short-term volunteer work, and casual visits to the orphanage by travellers are also discouraged. There are many reasons for this including:

· All of children have experienced varying degrees of trauma in their lives; unannounced visits by strange people can be disturbing to them. 

· None of the staff or children speaks fluent English. If you visit, the few children who speak a little English are taken out of their school classes in order to meet with you.

· When the children are not in school, they are busy working in their vegetable gardens or on their homework or creative activities (e.g. creating cards for sale). Visitors are an interruption to these valuable and important tasks.

· As a Government-run orphanage, anyone who wishes to work as a volunteer must be approved by the Lao Government (and this is not easy!).

You are, however, most welcome to visit the orphanage if you would like to donate food and/or other essential items and distribute them to the children, or if you have made a substantial donation and feel you would like to see how the money has been put to use. In these cases, please contact Christine Seabrook via the email address below so that necessary arrangements can be made with the orphanage Director.

Please note that all visits must be conducted in a manner that is responsible - we want to avoid at all costs any negative impact on the children.

Support Needed

Please refer to the orphanage's website for details of current needs. Generally speaking, the requirement is for food, clothing, medicines and school supplies, along with services such as building repair and maintenance. Everything the children need can be purchased in the local markets at prices lower than in Western countries. It just takes a lot of money to purchase 400 times everything!

The best way that you can assist is by making an online Paypal donation via the website - even better if it is a regular donation, as this enables us to plan regular purchases such as the monthly package we give each child (see the web site for details).

And, of course, spreading the word also helps!