This is Kong. The boy is seven years old and has been visiting the Vientiane Autism Center since March 2010. Kong’s parents are glad that Kong is well taken care of and that he is making progress. When Kong first came to the VAC, he could not speak. Now he is able to repeat monosyllabic words and knows his own name. Recently, he has started to say two-syllabic expressions. Kong is having difficulties keeping his moods under control. If things don’t go according to his wishes, he tends to take out his anger on the other children. On the other hand he is fascinated by the keyboard which he explores patiently for long periods of time. The teachers are now trying to teach him in music.
His parents have been struggling since the beginning to afford the EUR 220 every month for his place at the VAC, especially since Kong has two younger siblings. Kong’s father works for a ministry, his mother teaches at a university. Together they are earning less than EUR 500. When the first grants from the AfA scholarship fund were approved in January 2012, Kong was not one of them. Other cases were even more urgent. In September 2012 Kong’s parents got the approval to also pay 25% less. Around the end of the year it became difficult when the reserves of the scholarship fund were depleted. AfA intensified its fundraising efforts particularly in Laos and also received requests if sponsorships for individual children were possible. We did not hesitate and that’s why Kong now has a new sponsor, Tatjana, who currently lives in the Netherlands and donates EUR 50 a month to AfA. Tatjana is also helping us to translate our web-texts into English. A big Thank you goes to the Netherlands. Here´s to a continued cooperation!
