Project overview
The Footprints Network has generously supported CARE’s Clean Water for Ethnic Communities Project in Laos. This project is part of a larger four-year program, Laos: Improved Livelihood and Health Options for Remote Ethnic Communities, which seeks to strengthen the impact and sustainability of CARE Australia’s seven year experience working in remote ethnic communities in Laos in areas such as livelihoods, agriculture, water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition.
Impact
During July to December in 2013 this project reached 8,587 direct beneficiaries and 78,202 indirect beneficiaries (which includes the total population of three districts, which indirectly benefit from improved capacity of government on agriculture, water supply etc.).
- Water Infrastructure: Building and upgrading water supply systems, ensuring safe and sufficient water supply to three communities in remote ethnic areas.
- Women’s Groups: Strengthening the capacity of women’s group so women can raise questions in their community and access small grant opportunities linked to targeted, community-led development activities.
- Livelihood Development: CARE Laos has been working with a local Not-for-profit Sustainable Agriculture and Environment Association (SAEDA) who is providing technical training to villagers in livelihood development.
- Nutrition & Hygiene: To facilitate nutrition, health and income improvements amongst targeted remote ethnic communities, CARE has undertaken hygiene and nutrition awareness training with local women's groups.
Human Impact Story
Mrs Jerfer is 35 years old, Aka woman from Nha Nhoung village who has five children ranging from four to fifteen. She did not go to school before the project, and received little information from outside the village, spending most of her time working in the field and looking after her children. She and her family had little knowledge about health care, and didn’t consider basic hygiene measures (such as washing vegetable, meal and fruits). Her family members always got sick, particularly with diarrhoea and fever each year.
Since the start of this project, she has learnt about nutrition (the five food groups), hygiene, mother-child health and family planning, gender equality. The Project also supported a water supply system to her village. Her family has been chosen as a ‘model’ family as their kitchen is now clean and tidy and they always boil their water before drinking, children wash their hand before having meal, and are no longer getting sick. The women’s group she is a member of has provided a new opportunity for women in the village to come together and talk about gender issues. As a result, the women are becoming more confident in talking to their husbands about workload with the men now helping more with feeding the livestock and cooking for the family.
The money CARE Australia receives through Footprints will go towards the
cost of constructing and upgrading local water systems in some of the poorest and most remote ethnic groups in Phongsaly Province in Laos.
Project aims and outcomes
To improve the nutrition and health of people living in remote ethnic communities, by:
• constructing and upgrading local water systems to deliver clean water
• education and training of local health officials and village women’s groups
• village health education activities
• providing improved health service delivery to remote communities.
The project will achieve this through capacity building by CARE staff to provide local communities with education and training, organisational and infrastructural support, and the development and management of small grants.
Poverty in Laos
Laos is one of the most ethnically diverse
countries in South-East Asia. It is also one of the poorest. Although
complex, there is a strong link between ethnicity and poverty,
particularly in the remote and mountainous areas of Laos. These remote
ethnic communities are some of the most marginalised among the rural
poor with very high food insecurity, gender inequality and vulnerability
to social, economic and environmental changes.
Community partnerships
CARE works with local communities to develop strategies that are sustainable and can be implemented using locally available equipment and human resources. CARE works with local, municipal and national governments to coordinate and strengthen equitable and inclusive development.
Part of a larger project
This project is part of a larger four-year program, Laos: Improved Livelihood and Health Options for Remote Ethnic Communities, which seeks to strengthen the impact and sustainability of CARE Australia’s seven year experience working in remote ethnic communities in Laos in areas such as livelihoods, agriculture, water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition.