Houay Kiling is like many villages in NongHed District, struggling to educate their children. Lack of desire is not an issue, lack of resources is. Houay Kiling is an old village, almost a thousand years old! The village was bombed during the Secret War and still suffers the vestiges of that war on a daily basis.
The majority of people in the village make their living farming, they grow rice in the hillside and raise buffaloes, pigs and chickens for a secondary income. Average yearly income is less than $500 a year.
At our first visit they had an incomplete primary school with just two classrooms. They did not have a preschool program but more than enough to sustain a preschool program. In February 2010 they asked for our assistance to make that happen. They offered their help in the form of available materials and labor.
Long time donors and staunch supporters Michael and Denise McCarthy stepped up to help the children in Houay Kiling. They traveled to Laos and met the children with us in 2010. The school was completed that same year.