JungleVine® Foundation Donates Computer and Printer to School

Photo credit: Anousith Macvilay

The primary focus of our mission is to provide Khmu Nature Bag artisans with the opportunity to sell their handicrafts and earn an income while working at home. However, when we have opportunities and the ability to contribute to Khmu communities, we will.

On February 28, 2018, representatives from the JungleVine® Foundation and Lao JungleVine® Development Co. Ltd. visited a middle school serving five remote Khmu villages north of Luang Prabang. The organizations donated a laptop computer, printer, and English language books.

The school, built in 2012, serves 137 middle school students between the ages of 10 and 14. Before the middle school was built, the site featured only a primary school, and parents who wanted their children to go further in school had to send them to Luang Prabang to monk school.

Teachers hosted a welcome ceremony and spoke about the school and how the computer and printer will be used in their educational curriculum. Everyone enjoyed lunch and a tour of the school's campus. Here are a few photos from our visit.

The children gather for a group photo. (Photo credit: Anousith Macvilay)

Most of the five villages served by the school are too far to walk from daily, so children spend the week at school dorms and go home on weekends. This is the girls' dormitory.

Children wash their own clothes at school.

Children hang their laundry up near the school's well.

Children cultivate their own food at the school's garden.

Recess on the playground after lunch.

Students begin to return to one of the classrooms after lunch and recess.

The teacher's desk at the front of the classroom.

We often talk about how difficult it can be to access remote Khmu villages. This video shows a short stretch of the road to the school. The school was far easier to access than the villages, which are many kilometers further from the main road along far rougher terrain.

Supporting Khmu artisans and sharing their remarkable, sustainable JungleVine® handicrafts is a win not only for the Khmu, but for the world at large.