Lao New Year was celebrated at VAC on 12. April 2012 as usual with lots of fun and a lot of water. Wishing all of you also all the best for the buddhist year 2555!
April is not only the month of the traditional new year but – for us at least as important – also of Awareness for Autism. In Vientiane we celebrated World Autism Awareness Day on 2. April together with parents, relatives, friends and supporters (The Lao daily Pathet Lao reported on 3. April). On 11. April VAC welcomed the director of teacher training department of Ministry of Education and Sports as well as the director of Dongkhamsang teacher training college. We hope to start training in special education in Laos as soon as possible in order to get the much needed experts for autism, learning disabilities, down syndrom etc.
The center saw again some changes. We welcome more new kids: Dodo, Jason, and – ending the quite longtime of a pure boys group – the two girls Nadia and Silichanh. Unfortunately Khu Noum left us after just two months, so that we are now desparately looking for new teachers.
Donations are coming in from time to time and keep our scholarship scheme afloat. In March we got 250 Euro, in April so far 514 Euro. If only for each bottle of Beerlao drunken during Lao New Year we could get 100 Kip for our kids …
Happy Lao New Year
Apr 12
The decision of the Minister of Home Affairs No. 136 dated 15. March 2012 approves the establishment and the by-laws of the Association for Autism (AfA). By this decision a long process of formal registration as a Non-profit Association comes to its end. But work of the association just starts. Thanks to the support of our friends in the ASEAN Autism Network we have a number of posters with the signs of autism for distrubution. They will be used for the World Autism Awareness day on 02. April 2012.
As one of next next big task we will put the Vientiane Autism Center (VAC) under the formal supervision of AfA as the intended registration as private school proofed to be too complicated. Most important of all: the kids enjoy life at VAC. Last week the renovated swimming pool close to VAC reopened and provided the opportunity to have fun there again. Entering the hottest season of the year regular visits to the swimming pool will follow.
Joy and sorrow are often very close to each other. The sad news are that Mrs. Phaeowadee Pukkelapo, better known as Khu Mone, and Mr. Pumrapee Supan, also known as Khu Ae, left VAC after two and a half years of very intensive, very hard and very successful work. We are very grateful for all the support the two real founders of VAC provided in this challanging time. Many thanks and best wishes for the future! We are sure that we will stay in touch.
The good news are that at the end we welcome Mrs. Tanaporn Srikoomkao (Khu Chip) and Mr. Wuttikrai Kesaeng (Khu Noum) at VAC. We are sure that they will use their konwledge as teacher in special education for the best of VAC and we hope that they fit well in the now younger team.
We are also preparing to send our most advanced kids to a public primary school under the inclusive education project.
Khu Mone teaching at VAC
On 11. January the LAA board was reviewing 7 requests for support form the LAA Scholarship Fund. Five were ranked with highest priority. The board agreed to support one family by taking over 90% of the fee at Vientaine Autism Center, one family will get 50% support and three families 25% support each. The fee at VAC is 2,2 million Kip per months (approx. 200 EUR). As the fund has currently a deposit of totally 2.700 EUR and the decided support needs about 500 EUR per months the currently available amount of money covers the support until the end of June. The support becomes active starting from February 2012. The next review of appications will be held in March.
Sensory development in combination with writing skills development
A big “Thank You!” to all our supporters for the tremendous help in 2011. We begin 2012 with new energy and the will to achieve new results for all persons with autism in Lao PDR. We know that the new year will not be easy. First of all we will have to find replacements for our leaving expert-teachers from Thailand. Khuu Ae and Khuu Mone, we will miss you and all your dedication and experiences a lot! Thank you for all your efforts to bring the Vientiane Autism Center to a very high standard. We will do everything to keep level and to further improve.
In 2012 we target to increase the number of children at VAC to 25. This needs qualified teachers and financial support, because we will continue to offer scholarships to families who can not afford the current fees at VAC. The fees are a quite tricky thing: we have 8 teachers for 18 kids and are going to maintain this ratio. Currently we spend about 72% of all expenses for our staff. As in Laos and Thailand schemes are under way to increases teacher salaries the problem will no be easy to solve. But we are not going to compromise on quality.
We are planning to send teachers for qualification to Thailand and to start our inclusinve education project with primary schools. We keep you posted.
Support increases
Nov 27
For the first time Lao Autism Association (LAA) and Vientiane Autism Center (VAC) jointly participated at the WIG Bazzar Vientiane. Just in time we got our new brochures in English and Lao printed could provide information to a wider public. Thanks to Lukas Wahl for the impressive pictures and thanks to VAC teachers and LAA board members for spending their Saturday on our booth. Revenues from sales added to almost 3 million Kip, which will be used for both LAA and VAC.
In the meantime we got also good news from Germany and would like to thank our donors Norbert Höink, Mr. and Mrs. Wieprecht, Klaus Maret and Carmen Junk for their support.
24. September 2011 is a historic date for the Lao Autism Association: LAA held its First General Assembly! About 40 people, members as well as invided guest, gathered at the training center of the Lao Womens Union in Vientiane. As prescribed by the respective regulations, Mr. Noy Indavong, advisor to LAA, proclamed the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs about the temporary prermission for LAA. The participants of the assembly discussed the draft by-laws of LAA and elected the governing bodies of LAA: the board of 5 members and a 3 members strong control commission. In its first meeting the newly elected board elected Mrs. Viengsam Soinxay as president of LAA for the first term of 3 years.
The General Assembly also discussed the draft regulation for the scholarship fund which will allow easier access to education services for children with autism.
According to the rules LAA submitted the report of the General Assembly, the draft by-laws, the protocol of the election as well as the decisions of the assembly to the Ministry of Home Affairs for further proceedings. Within 60 days we will know whether LAA will get a permanent license to operate. Special thanks to CRS who supported the generously General Assembly.
In the meantime our members do not just sit and wait. We prepare for the next big event, our first participation at the famous WIG Bazaar on 19. November 2011. Hope to see you there.
Under no. 39 dated 05. September 2011 we got the temporary registration of Lao Autism Association. Now we have 90 days to held the general assembly, adopting the by-laws and electing the first board of LAA. The coming Sunday the mobilizing committee will meet in order to prepare this big event. Any kind of support for our general assembly is welcome.
LAA office equipped
Jul 15
Since today LAA is official owner of a well equipped office – thanks to support from the German Embassy in Laos supporting a micro project worth 60,7 million Kip (about 5.800 EUR). The donation included 3 computers, office furniture, a copy machine and a photo camera. The equipment will be used for the objectives of LAA: raising awareness about autism in Laos, providing services to persons with autism and supporting the formation of experts in the field of autism. Many thanks to the German Embassy for the valuable support!
However, to achieve full function LAA still needs the official registration with the respective Lao authorities.
Some figures about VAC
Jun 15
As we were entering our third year of operation we also checked our balances. In the year from 01.06.2010 until 31.05.2011we achieved the following results:
Income: 316.540.440 Kip
Expenses: 322.045.197 Kip
thereof
Investment 16.916.600
Usables 34.955.920 (10,8%)
Maint. 6.108.732
Personnel 226.936.000 (70%)
Fees 2.979.000
Food 34.148.945 (10,6%)
Balance -5.504.757
These figures do not include the cost of construction for the 3 new classrooms.
During the year the number of children reached 16. As result the number of teachers was increased to 8.
