Protect Lao Girls From Human Trafficking

Sok Dee Pii Mai! Happy Lao new year everyone, may this new year bring you as much hope and joy as we hope to give women and girls in Laos. 2016 was off to a good start, and so is 2559!

SENGSAVANG is always striving to give a better life to our residents. Our holistic approach lets the girls thrive in a safe environment and overcome the trauma associated to their past as victims of trafficking or domestic violence. And there is always room for improvement when dealing with human emotions, which is why we at SENGSAVANG never rest on our laurels and constantly strive to improve our services to vulnerable girls and women. It is also a guarantee that your donations are always used in the most effective way possible.

The past few months have been a whirlwind: while leading an internal assessment of our services, we've also been working hard on developping our social enterprise: we now run a restaurant, a tailor shop, and a beauty salon, both to generate income for the rehabilitation center, and to give employment and training opportunities for our residents. We opened in February 2016... and business is booming! We are finally able to provide income to some of the girls who have completed their vocational training, but decide to stay in the shelter to have access to all the services we offer (like psychological and medical support). Our end goal is for the girls to regain their self-confidence and be strong enough to lead their lives. We would never force anyone to leave (or stay) in the shelter: the decision is up to them.

To feed our hungry clients, we have also developped an organic farm: we grow herbs, lettuce, spinach, morning glory, tomatoes, oyster mushrooms, papaya, jackfruit, mangos... We make natural fertilizer, and draw water from our own well so the water is guaranteed without contaminents. The girls all benefit from the farm, they get to enjoy deliciously fresh vegetables, and learn organic agriculture techniques than can easily be reproduced in their home villages. Nutrition is an important part of the things we teach the girls, since most of them come from rural villages and minority communities that don't have access to this type of information. La*, a Hmong resident of SENGSAVANG who benefited from a food and hygiene course at the LANITH Center in Vientiane, and now works in the restaurant kitchen, recently told us why she was so grateful for her experience with us.

"In my village in the North, people don't know about nutrition, they don't know why a varied diet is so important. So many of my friends have lost their babies because they couldn't breastfeed them, they were malnourished and didn't even know it. Now, thanks to SENGSAVANG, when I go back to my village, I can teach everyone, I can show them how to make nutritious healthy food with the things that grow there naturally, and I can explain why pregant women or women with infants need specific diets. Never in my life did I think I would be able to come this far, and be so useful to my community."

This is SENGSAVANG's wider aim. When you help a single woman, you help an entire village, and you help change mentalities on a woman's worth and role in society. So we would like to thank you for your invaluable support, we wouldn't have been able to change La's life without it.

Your SENGSAVANG Team

*Name has been changed