As I sit here at Bangkok Airport waiting for my flight home, I have some time (about 7 hours actually) to reflect on the last two weeks. These last two weeks seem to have been an eternity, but at the same time gone by quite fast. We packed in a lot of cycling, lots of visits to various villages and monuments, and interacted with the locals in ways that would not have been possible as a regular visitor to these two incredible countries. Along the way, I met a wonderful bunch of people, my fellow fundraisers and cyclists, who each had their own fascinating story of how they became a part of the team and what they did to raise the necessary funds for the clean water and sanitation project in Laos. Many of us did not know what to expect and in some cases we were very pleased with what we saw and in other cases things could have been better. It was different for each of us and I can't comment for everyone else, but what I can say is that for me, I would have liked to spend more time within the communities were we fund raising to help. Our time with the communities was richly rewarding for us and I hope too for our hosts, that could have been made richer by spending more time together. As an example, our time at the school was only long enough to see some of the classrooms and play outside with the kids, after they eventually warmed up to us. I couldn't tell you what any of their names were. The same is true for the people at the villages and the boys and girls with whom we played the soccer game. It would have been nice to be able to make a stronger connection with them. That is not to say that these experiences were not good, on the contrary, they were amazing and almost impossible to describe in terms of the emotions we felt at the time.
There were also some things that opened my eyes a bit more to the work that NGOs like ChildFund are doing in these communities. For example, despite the best intentions of visitors, we were asked not to hand any gifts of any kind to the children and families we visited in Laos and if we had something we wanted to give, then it should be given to the ChildFund co-ordinator for the area to distributed appropriately. We were informed that giving handouts to them in that manner from visitors/donors, encourages a culture of begging that they are obviously trying to keep out. In fact, I don't recall seeing a single beggar in Laos, even in the main tourist areas. More to my surprise though, and it makes perfect sense when you think about it, the families who will be receiving the toilets that we were fund raising for do not simply have it handed to them. Each family needs to put in a certain percentage of the cost of the toilets based on their relative wealth within the community and also do the labour to actually build them. The percentage is quite low and will be between 5-15% of the cost. ChildFund provides the toilets and materials build the toilet unit, as well as training on how to do it and the household needs to dig the hole for the cement pit for the waste, build the toilet and the structure it will be housed in. This gives the individual household a sense of ownership and pride of their toilet and thus will look after it. I can tell you first hand that these toilets were spotless as they are well cleaned after each use. I've seen plenty of Western household toilets that were in a worse state than these. The philosophy is working as the demand for more household toilets is rising from the individual families in the villages. Great news. Also, despite this fund raising being about sanitation and clean water, ChildFund is doing much more than that in the communities. Education is very important to lift people out of poverty, as is health and nutrition, and ChildFund is also working in these areas to provide those services, but in a way that involves the community and gives them ownership over the outcomes. Take education for example, ChildFund built the school that we went to visit, but it was not done without first consulting the locals about the location and how it will benefit the community the most. It was also not done without first getting buy-in from the local government/council to provide the teachers and commit to the ongoing staffing. There is no point having a school if there are no teachers, just as there is no point having education without first meeting the basic needs of that community like food, clean water, shelter, access to health care etc. There is a whole ecosystem that needs to be in place and continually developing in order to effectively support a community like those we visited in Nonghet and in the long term (about 12 years we're told) be able to step back and know that the locals have everything they need to be able to help themselves. This is the essence of what ChildFund is doing in Nonghet. They are about 3 years in to the 12-year program and what they are doing seems to really be working well.
I know I rambled a bit in the last paragraph, but I think it was important to express as clearly as I could some of the learning I took away from this trip. We in the West don't really understand the full picture of what the NGOs are doing and can often be critical of that work when immediate results are not seen. Throughout the blog posts while I've been away, I've talked about different aspects of culture that I've noticed and other bits of information. The Lao people are some of the most gentle people I have ever met and not once throughout the whole time we were there did I ever feel unsafe or threatened by any situation. They seem to have a very trusting and hospitable culture that almost dictates that if you asked for it, a person that never met you would give you the shirt off his back. To try and illustrate, while we were cycling, we would make several stops along a route that would often be in the middle of a village. As you can imagine, these stops were also toilet breaks for some, but there are no public toilets anywhere, so on occasion, the villagers would allow us to enter their premises to use their toilets as we streamed in one by one. How many people do you know who would let a bunch of smelly cyclists, whom you've never met and will never see again, come into their homes one by one to use their toilet? And expect nothing in return? Another example is one I've already mentioned in the blog posts. When we visited the villages in Nonghet, these people gave up what would likely have been their quota of meat for the month in order to fed these strangers that they had never met before. You could argue that this was a form of saying thank-you for the funds we raised to help their communities, but I believe that thinking would be a little narrow minded and devalue the incredible generosity of a people that have far less than we do. Chris Mastaglio, Country Director ChildFund Laos, told us that he went to Laos for a holiday about 8 years ago and just never left. I can see why.
What about the children? The children are the means through which ChildFund is trying to accomplish their work in Laos and all over the world. Children are strong advocates for their families and are often not as hindered culturally to speak up about the things that affect them as their parents might be. ChildFund is working through children to understand what their challenges are and get their ideas on how to improve things. The sport centre that ChildFund set up is a classic example of this. The children themselves plan and run the activities of that centre with only guidance, funding and support from ChildFund staff. I've never seen so many smiling happy children than I what I saw in Laos and Cambodia for that matter. Interacting, playing, waving, and yelling hello to the children as we rode along have definitely been one of the memories that I am most fond of from our time here. Working in a culture where children are to be seen and not heard, these children are making a difference in the development of their communities for the better. It was just wonderful to see.
This begs the question, would I do something like this again? Of course!! But I would like to do it in a way that includes my whole family. I think it would be greatly rewarding and eye opening for my children to see how children in other places are living and to appreciate the comforts that they have in life. I think generally in the West, we are immune or turn a blind eye to the poverty and suffering being experienced by others every day and it is important to educate our children that life isn't just about making more money so you can get the things you want and live a happy life. I believe that those of us in a position of privilege have a responsibility to help those that are less fortunate, to improve their lives and standard of living also. This doesn't mean providing handouts, but rather getting involved and making a difference through organisations such as ChildFund who are trained and experienced in implementing the programs necessary to create a long term sustainable method of keeping them out of poverty. This doesn't mean we have to go overseas either. There are plenty of people in Australia that need help and support too; the homeless (Hanover, The Smith Family and others have programs that you can participate in), marginalised Aboriginal communities (TEAR Australia is doing work in this space among others), the depressed(BeyondBlue has been working with people sufferring from depression for as long as I can remember) and many more. Get out there and make a difference.
A quick note to my fellow riders and fundraisers. Thank-you for an extraordinary experience. Sharing this time with such a diverse group of people pulled together by a common will to make a difference in the lives of others has really enhanced what was already an amazing time. Please stay in touch and look me up when you are in Melbourne. I will do the same when I'm in your respective cities. You have all been inspirational to me in your own way, more than you probably know.
Finally, to all the people and organisations that sponsored and supported this great cause, from donating your time, your products, your money, and your energy, to encouraging me and supporting me along the way, I sincerely thank you. I hope that you have been able to share a little bit of this experience with me through the blog posts and have felt a part of the great work that you have helped to accomplish.
This is me signing off for the moment on the Laos Water Cycle blog. I'm not sure if/how I will continue to use this blog, but once I know, you will know also. :-)
Thank you!!
There were also some things that opened my eyes a bit more to the work that NGOs like ChildFund are doing in these communities. For example, despite the best intentions of visitors, we were asked not to hand any gifts of any kind to the children and families we visited in Laos and if we had something we wanted to give, then it should be given to the ChildFund co-ordinator for the area to distributed appropriately. We were informed that giving handouts to them in that manner from visitors/donors, encourages a culture of begging that they are obviously trying to keep out. In fact, I don't recall seeing a single beggar in Laos, even in the main tourist areas. More to my surprise though, and it makes perfect sense when you think about it, the families who will be receiving the toilets that we were fund raising for do not simply have it handed to them. Each family needs to put in a certain percentage of the cost of the toilets based on their relative wealth within the community and also do the labour to actually build them. The percentage is quite low and will be between 5-15% of the cost. ChildFund provides the toilets and materials build the toilet unit, as well as training on how to do it and the household needs to dig the hole for the cement pit for the waste, build the toilet and the structure it will be housed in. This gives the individual household a sense of ownership and pride of their toilet and thus will look after it. I can tell you first hand that these toilets were spotless as they are well cleaned after each use. I've seen plenty of Western household toilets that were in a worse state than these. The philosophy is working as the demand for more household toilets is rising from the individual families in the villages. Great news. Also, despite this fund raising being about sanitation and clean water, ChildFund is doing much more than that in the communities. Education is very important to lift people out of poverty, as is health and nutrition, and ChildFund is also working in these areas to provide those services, but in a way that involves the community and gives them ownership over the outcomes. Take education for example, ChildFund built the school that we went to visit, but it was not done without first consulting the locals about the location and how it will benefit the community the most. It was also not done without first getting buy-in from the local government/council to provide the teachers and commit to the ongoing staffing. There is no point having a school if there are no teachers, just as there is no point having education without first meeting the basic needs of that community like food, clean water, shelter, access to health care etc. There is a whole ecosystem that needs to be in place and continually developing in order to effectively support a community like those we visited in Nonghet and in the long term (about 12 years we're told) be able to step back and know that the locals have everything they need to be able to help themselves. This is the essence of what ChildFund is doing in Nonghet. They are about 3 years in to the 12-year program and what they are doing seems to really be working well.
I know I rambled a bit in the last paragraph, but I think it was important to express as clearly as I could some of the learning I took away from this trip. We in the West don't really understand the full picture of what the NGOs are doing and can often be critical of that work when immediate results are not seen. Throughout the blog posts while I've been away, I've talked about different aspects of culture that I've noticed and other bits of information. The Lao people are some of the most gentle people I have ever met and not once throughout the whole time we were there did I ever feel unsafe or threatened by any situation. They seem to have a very trusting and hospitable culture that almost dictates that if you asked for it, a person that never met you would give you the shirt off his back. To try and illustrate, while we were cycling, we would make several stops along a route that would often be in the middle of a village. As you can imagine, these stops were also toilet breaks for some, but there are no public toilets anywhere, so on occasion, the villagers would allow us to enter their premises to use their toilets as we streamed in one by one. How many people do you know who would let a bunch of smelly cyclists, whom you've never met and will never see again, come into their homes one by one to use their toilet? And expect nothing in return? Another example is one I've already mentioned in the blog posts. When we visited the villages in Nonghet, these people gave up what would likely have been their quota of meat for the month in order to fed these strangers that they had never met before. You could argue that this was a form of saying thank-you for the funds we raised to help their communities, but I believe that thinking would be a little narrow minded and devalue the incredible generosity of a people that have far less than we do. Chris Mastaglio, Country Director ChildFund Laos, told us that he went to Laos for a holiday about 8 years ago and just never left. I can see why.
What about the children? The children are the means through which ChildFund is trying to accomplish their work in Laos and all over the world. Children are strong advocates for their families and are often not as hindered culturally to speak up about the things that affect them as their parents might be. ChildFund is working through children to understand what their challenges are and get their ideas on how to improve things. The sport centre that ChildFund set up is a classic example of this. The children themselves plan and run the activities of that centre with only guidance, funding and support from ChildFund staff. I've never seen so many smiling happy children than I what I saw in Laos and Cambodia for that matter. Interacting, playing, waving, and yelling hello to the children as we rode along have definitely been one of the memories that I am most fond of from our time here. Working in a culture where children are to be seen and not heard, these children are making a difference in the development of their communities for the better. It was just wonderful to see.
This begs the question, would I do something like this again? Of course!! But I would like to do it in a way that includes my whole family. I think it would be greatly rewarding and eye opening for my children to see how children in other places are living and to appreciate the comforts that they have in life. I think generally in the West, we are immune or turn a blind eye to the poverty and suffering being experienced by others every day and it is important to educate our children that life isn't just about making more money so you can get the things you want and live a happy life. I believe that those of us in a position of privilege have a responsibility to help those that are less fortunate, to improve their lives and standard of living also. This doesn't mean providing handouts, but rather getting involved and making a difference through organisations such as ChildFund who are trained and experienced in implementing the programs necessary to create a long term sustainable method of keeping them out of poverty. This doesn't mean we have to go overseas either. There are plenty of people in Australia that need help and support too; the homeless (Hanover, The Smith Family and others have programs that you can participate in), marginalised Aboriginal communities (TEAR Australia is doing work in this space among others), the depressed(BeyondBlue has been working with people sufferring from depression for as long as I can remember) and many more. Get out there and make a difference.
A quick note to my fellow riders and fundraisers. Thank-you for an extraordinary experience. Sharing this time with such a diverse group of people pulled together by a common will to make a difference in the lives of others has really enhanced what was already an amazing time. Please stay in touch and look me up when you are in Melbourne. I will do the same when I'm in your respective cities. You have all been inspirational to me in your own way, more than you probably know.
Finally, to all the people and organisations that sponsored and supported this great cause, from donating your time, your products, your money, and your energy, to encouraging me and supporting me along the way, I sincerely thank you. I hope that you have been able to share a little bit of this experience with me through the blog posts and have felt a part of the great work that you have helped to accomplish.
This is me signing off for the moment on the Laos Water Cycle blog. I'm not sure if/how I will continue to use this blog, but once I know, you will know also. :-)
Thank you!!
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