We have started Crowdfunding😃

Japanese Non-Profit Organization, Wakamono International Support Association (WISA) has started a project, titled “Laos Folklore Publication & Job Creation for Youth”  (Folklore and Youth, FaY) with the Research Center of Lao Culture and Folklore in Luang Prabang, Laos. The aim of the project is  to create job opportunities for Lao youth (12-22 years old) who face unemployment and poverty arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.We sincerely hope for your understanding and support for this worthy cause.

Multi-Cultural Harmony in Laos

 

 

Reference
・ UNICEF, Centre for Development Policy Research Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) Vientiane, Lao PDR, 2021
・Laos Unemployment Rate, Trading Economics, 2020

It has been proven that girls are 25% more at risk risk than boys. If, however, children are not able to be taken care of, Buddhist temples may supply them with food and clothing. Though, this social security system is not available to all children. Young girls who are unable to become nuns, and young adults must survive on their own. Single-parent children and those who are brought up by their relatives (skip generations) are especially at high risk of poverty.

Reference
・ UN Lao PDR Socio-Econom ic Response Framework to COVID-19, the UN Country Team in Lao PDR, 2020

Among these ethnic minorities, many of them do not posiste letters. It is truly unfortunate that it is these children that are often forced to give up their education and go into labor to help support their familes. The jobs they obtain are usually harsh physical labor or illegal child labor. Once involved in these illegal labors such as human or drug trafficking, they are exposed to dangerous relationships with endless risks. These adolescents are also mentally damaged as they become afraid of society and shameful of their forced actions. The traumatizing experience haunts them for the rest of their lives, contributing again to a vicious cycle of crime and poverty.

According to the French NGO, Sengsavang, about 450,000 people are trafficked each year among the countries of the Mekong region, and more than 90% of them are said to be from the Laotian youth. In recent years, trafficking has been occurring to secure the dangerous labor force for railway construction and land development in China. Besides the fact that many girls and children are being sexually abused, forced marriages are also being carried out at the casino center built in Bokeo province. The Corona pandemic has led the young people of Laos into not only poverty, but also into deep mental and physical pain.

When the project was started, members first attempted to teach English and computer skills to people who were involved in dangerous work. However, after two or three months into the project, they gradually stopped coming to learn. Despite the efforts of the members, they would say “I don’t like studying” and look the other way. After this unsuccessful start, the members decided to take surveys and talk to the children in order to find a better way to launch this project. Through these interviews, four points became clear.

1. Most of the poor young people who come to the capital city from the countryside are there to earn money for their families.
2. The children are pressured to quit school in order to support their family.
3. The toxic situation mentally detaches the idea of school education from children.
4. Simply funding and building schools will not improve the current situation, and that money, jobs, and education must be provided concurrently.

The members of FaY further discussed these issues while seeking solutions. Then one day, the members came across children talking about their folklore. They were telling the story about Pi which is described as a ghost or spirit in English. These children were not in school, though the members noticed that they knew many folklore tales. When they talked about these stories, it was hard to imagine that they were the same children, for in their eyes there was confidence and excitement like never before. The children even started to draw pictures and illustrations to explain the stories to the members, and it was clear that they were very happy to finally have their voices heard.

 

This striking experience led the team to reassess their concept of helping. Instead of us providing them with something new (English education/ computer skills), the idea shifted to having the Laotain people teach us.

 

Folklore is passed down from generation to generation and has played an important role in building and protecting the history and culture of Laos.

The FaY team realized that the stories orally taught to ethnic minorities have  passed on their culture and history by mouth over generation to generation, and contributed to the construction of an identity in Laos culture.  Each story tells “humanity to live in harmony with nature, different animals, and different cultures”.  These folklore are in danger of extinction, since the ethnicities have no written language.

The project Concept Movie

Education × Job Creation × Cultural Conservation

My name is Nah, 16 years old.

I was working in a restaurant before the lockdown due to COVID-19, receiving 600,000 kips (about 60 USD) per month. But, the restaurant was closed after lock down.

I drafted and illustrated the story I heard it from my grandfather. I learned English and wrote the text on a computer. I hope many people read it.

We, Japanese NGO Wisa tied with Research Center Lao Culture & Folklore in Luang Prabang province, are now recruiting donations from people who understand the impact of this FaY project. You can donate money from this web-page below via credit card, VISA, Master card and JCB.  This crowd funding has very a unique feature in that the donators will participate in this project through directly joining dialogue and exchanging with the project members and the children who receive your donation.

☚Donate Button

In order to secure the transparency of the use of donations to the children, the donator will participate in a report conference and reading workshop, receiving video letters and live chat from the children who participate in this project. We will promise that your donation will ONLY be used in the three expenses below.

The donation covers salary for the children and youth who contribute to the publication process as job-creation.

*The cost does not include expenses of office management, and salary for staff in the office. These expenses are covered by Wisa donations.

Senior youthes who are over 20 years old, will work for teachers of the Lao language, English and ICT skills. We expect 100 USD per month for one teacher. We need at least two teachers for the project.

Expenses for PC devices

Returns for Donators in DPG system

If you donate 30 USD

 

・Invitation to the “Online Project Report Workshop” where you can know the project results and future, in addition to the current status of Lao youth and their culture. In the workshop, the children and youth from the FaY project will join in and work for the reporting.  The workshop is planned to be held with limited membership by online ZOOM.

・Invitation to the online workshop of translation from English to Japanese [in Japanese], also “online reading folklore workshop” [in English] via ZOOM.

 

 

・You will receive a photo album, produced by the project, featuring the process of this project. (24 pages) in a PDF digital format.
*The photo book will be completed in April 2022 according to the project schedule.

If you donate 100 USD

If you donate 180 USD/ 360 USD

Establish your named special scholarship for youth schooling

Notices for Donators

・This crowd funding project is managed in responsibility of Wisa (Japanese NGO, Wakamono International Support Association, located in Osaka City, Japan), will promise to use your donation accordingly to support the FaY project. However, regarding the returns which are noted above, would be partially or wholly changed or modified according to the social and personal situation of youth in projects. For example, when your donation is supposed to support a youth, and that youth may drop out of the project in the middle due to unexpected changes in his or her condition. Then,  Wisa will coordinate for your donation to assist part of another youth, with an explanation. In another example case, one youth who received your donation and is supposed to attend the online report workshop, but he or she can not make it because of an urgent accident, may change the planned agenda of the online report workshop. Then, Wisa may coordinate a special thanks video letter as much as the youth can to send to the donator as his or her report.  Please understand if these flexible coordination would be required in return for your donation. This is a donation, you are not purchasing a particular service in return. These returning actions are designed for securing transparency in the use of your donation.

・If a serious accident which may make the project wholly itself impossible to execute and to implement, Wisa promises to refund your donation to you. In this case, please understand we will refund the donation excluding costs of transmission which occurs during donations and refunds.