Mr. Sompheth story

Hello, my name is Mr. Somphet,
I am 34 years old and I am from Khammouan Province, I started working with HPP (Humana People to People Laos) in the middle of 2021. My work in the past was as an agriculture facilitator in the Farmers' Clubs project. I had responsibility for Farmers' Clubs in 5 villages in the Kounkham district. I am currently in charge of the forest planting project in Nakham village, Kounkham District. The project started on March 2023 and is supported by The McConnell Foundation through IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

Throughout the past period of work in the area, the result of the project starts to show improved reforestation in Phu Hai Forest Reserve. The area is now green forest and will be a habitat for endangered wildlife. It’s also an area giving improved livelihood for nearby villagers. Before the project came to Nakham village, the people in Nakham and surrounding villages were still living traditionally and deforested around the Phouhai protected area. After the project came in, the protected forest area became more abundant and beautiful than before, and the people of Nakham village had increased income from selling rattan shoots and vegetables. The farmers were training on how to produce rattan and native tree saplings. The training included nursery propagating and planting, managing a nursery, and monitoring the growth and survival rates. They also learned to sustainably harvest rattan while maximizing the yields of edible shoots and canes. The farmers have increased their craft skills such as using rattan to make baskets and also brought the lessons learned from the project to be used and disseminated to other farmers surrounding Nakham Village.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the HPP Laos’ project for allowing me to participate in this project. I may not be as skilled and educated as other people, but I will try to make it the best I can. Thank you for the project's trust and for allowing me to share the knowledge and experience that I have to share and develop the farmers' group. Working with the organization this time made me learn how to plan the work system. These are all new experiences and the most challenging. I believe that these experiences will be a driving force in developing myself in the future.

Farmer’s Club

We visited the project: Increased Resilience, and Improved Food and Nutrition Security of Vulnerable Communities in Khammouane Province, to talk with the farmers about how they were doing after the project ended in 2021.

This Project was implemented by Health Poverty Action (HPA) and Humana People to People Laos (HPP Laos) with funds from European Union (EU). It supported 5000 farmers in 100 villages of Thakhek’ Mahaxay, Xaybuathong, Khounkham, Gnommalath and Bualapha districts, Khammouane Province.
In the visit we met with Ms.Pheangkeo, one of 5,000 members of the Farmers’ Clubs Project that Humana FPP implemented.
Ms. Pheangkeo is 30 years old, and she lives in Ban Phonesad, Gnommalath District.
She says: “after Project started in Phonesad village in 2019, I learned a lot about growing vegetables and raising animal from the project, and I used the knowledge from the training. I also received seeds and animals from the project to experiment with growing a variety of vegetables and found that it worked so well. My family has more to eat and get more nutritious food after the project started. Additionally, I can also sell some products, and earn some money for spending within the family.
In the beginning our village received 3 goats,40 chicken, 40 ducks for pass-on-loans to some of the families in the villages. These "first generation" farmers passed on some of their first offspring Goats to other families, and the "second generation" families again passed offspring on to the next families. I personally see that this project is a project that allows our farmers to learn many things such as farming and animal husbandry. This has been manifested by the unity there is in the village about the activities assigned by the project. Currently, there are 25 goats for 19 families, Although the Project is finished the villagers will continue the pass-on-loans of goats to 50 families of the Farmers’ Club in the village.
The training was very good and I enjoy learning. I also participated in the step-up farmer group's activities, and currently I am continuing to use the method and knowledge from the training for growing vegetables and raising animals. We also learned to use the waste from the vegetable leftover after consumption to feed our ducks and chickens, which helped to reduce buying animal feed for our family.

Household Biomass Gasifiers

Household Biomass Gasifiers – a project that promotes clean cooking and protection of the environment in Khammoune Province

About the Humana People to People project supported by Canadian Funds for Local Initiatives (CFLI)
The project “Empowering Ethnic Minority Women and Girls through Clean Cookstoves and Sustainable Agriculture for Improved Health and Livelihoods in Khammouane Province, Laos” supports women and girls in reducing women’s workload with many activities. They have received Household Biomass Gasifiers which are fueled by rice husk to cook the meals, so they don’t need to walk far to collect firewood anymore. The project tackles the health and environmental issues stemming from the traditional way of cooking.
Another important activity is the child care system to lessen women’s domestic responsibilities and boost their productivity and empowerment.
This is how the women implemented this activity:
The Project leader proposed to the women in the project to organize a common child care system to help increase the time for women with children to earn a living and help the family to increase productivity and generate income. - At the same time, this will also help the children to learn more, be engaged in new activities and train their language together with other children, before they are old enough to enter primary school.
The women liked the idea and decided to organize in groups of 10 women together. In 1 village there are 4 groups of 10 people; in total 40 families are included in the system. The women in the group rotate to take care of the children freeing up time for all the women on the days they do not take care of the group of children.
Here is an example of how some of the groups have organized: The activities of the child care group are every Monday - Friday from 8 am to 4 pm, all parents contribute food to the group to cook for the children at lunch time. 3 women take care of the children once a day.

TC-TB Oudomxay

Hi, my name is Santhi Thanthawong
I am 32 years old, and I am from Khamkeuth District, Borikamxay Province. I started working with HPP Laos in 2019. My role was to work in the field with the farmers and to be the agricultural teacher of the Farmers' Club Project. During that period, I was responsible for the Farmers' Clubs of 5 villages in Tha Kaek District, Khammouan Province.

During my work, I have seen this program enable farmers to create sustainability in their agricultural production. Our program works with farmers, focusing on group work in Farmers' Clubs. They learned and shared experiences with each other during workshops and training, and used sustainable working methods in farming and animal husbandry. Farmers have continued to do all activities, and I am very impressed to see these Farmers' Clubs continue to operate after the Farmers' Club Project ended.

I started to work at a community support project in early 2022. I am participating in support of eliminating tuberculosis in Oudomxay Province. My duties are as a field worker. Before we started to work in Oudomxay and got the responsibility of tuberculosis work, I received training. I went to learn about the work together with the HPP tuberculosis team of Borikhamxay Province, that implemented the same activities at that time. The work in Oudomxay, where I am working now, is very difficult because the area covered by the project is remote, and the roads are difficult because it is a rural area. In some places, communication is difficult because people are from ethnic groups with other languages. It is a challenge for me to motivate the people in the communities to get help from public health services. Most people in the project area are impoverished families who lack food, clothing, medicine, and clean drinking water and still defecate out in the open. They are poor and do not get good nutrition which causes diseases.

I am very happy to be a part of HPP; to have worked together with the communities, and to help them because our work is much needed. It is a job that I love very much, to be able to contribute to the development of the villages. Finally, thank you to the donors who supported the project. I also thank HPP Laos for trusting me and giving the opportunity to share knowledge and collect experiences in the development of these communities.