Na Oh Village is located roughly 5 km southwest from Phonsavan, the Provincial Capital of Xieng Khouang Province.
The village has a long but marred history due to the Secret War. The village can be traced back at least 165 years, and several villagers tell us their great grandparents said the village was about 400 years old. In 1969 the villagers migrated to Vientiane because of the war, returning in 1975 to find the remnants of their village inhabited by others. The renewed village is about 19 years old, settled near the Plain of Jars Site 1 in 1996.
Na Oh means Pond Bowl. The village is a mixture of Lao Loum, Hmong and Khmu and has a current population of approximately 1,675 people. The majority of the villagers are farmers, few are weavers, seamstresses and laborers. The average yearly income per family is approximately $415.
The village has one primary school for grades 1 through 5, they have a temporary preschool classroom for 5 year olds with 1 preschool teacher. There are approximately 160 preschool aged children in Na Oh and two other adjoining villages, Koumnakhai and Namtom.
The preschool children’s current count and forecasts suggest a four-room preschool to be built on the school grounds, pictured below. We have met with the village leaders and education officials in the village and are very impressed with the emphasis they put on education for their children.
The Na Oh preschool site was surveyed for UXO on January 13, 2016. The clearance team removed every piece of metal on the school grounds to examine them to determine whether it is shrapnel, spent shells or live bombs. After scanning the grounds UXO LAO detonated two live bombs (Blu-26s bombies) and removed 4 mortar rockets.
On January 27, 2016 the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Xieng Khouang Provincial Education Department was signed. The Provincial and District Education Departments, Keomanyvanh Construction Company and Give Children A Choice all were in attendance at the signing ceremony. All attendees are grateful for your support in building another school in the Province. The temperatures during our visit were the coldest in 60 years, below freezing and it even snowed in some parts of Xieng Khouang and Luang Prabang Provinces. Everyone was bundled up!
A few days after signing the MOU the exact placement of the school was decided and the area was marked so construction could begin. The weather in Xieng Khouang has been very cold, rainy and on this day the sun came back out!
Supplies were being delivered to the site and the villagers were busy assisting the workers in digging the footings. Labor is a major contribution from the village towards the school project and everyone in the village gets involved.
At a visit to the preschool site less than one month after the initial groundbreaking we were excited to see the amazing progress. All footing work is complete, up beams complete and the walls are going up!
Progress photos from last week of March, 2016.
Progress photos from April and May, the preschool is nearing completion. The 50% inspection took place in mid-April. The electrical installation will be the first week of July and then the final inspection can be scheduled. The school will be ready for the children when the new school year begins in September.