World Vision Singapore

Last year, my husband and I took our children – aged 10, eight and five then – to Laos for a week’s holiday to see another side of South East Asia, which was a contrast to the developed city of Singapore, where we live. It was a magical week and we all fell in love with this quiet and tranquil country and its friendly, welcoming people.

I have been volunteering at World Vision Singapore over the past year, and my husband and I decided to sponsor some children through its Child Sponsorship programme, specifically in the Xieng Nguen district near Luang Prabang, Laos.

Over the past months we have exchanged letters with our sponsored children and received photographs of them. When the opportunity arose to visit them, we decided we would love to meet them in person with our children.

The Child Sponsors’ trip to Laos organised by World Vision Singapore was five days but that was a little too long for our children, so we travelled separately and spent just two days with the World Vision group.

On our first day, we met the group at the hotel and then travelled by mini-bus for about an hour and a half along a winding mountainous road to the south of Luang Prabang. Here, we visited a village that has a health centre providing basic medical needs to the surrounding villages. World Vision also installed several wells so that the villagers do not have to collect water from the river, which is a long walk from their homes.

The second day was a highlight for our children. We visited the school that our four sponsored children attend. About 150 children attend this school that has four classrooms. Our four sponsored children, Tick (aged six), Bounchan (aged 10), Wai (aged 11) and Tong (aged 11), come from different families and villages.

We brought with us donations of clothes for the community collected from my children’s school in Singapore. We also prepared a gift for each of our four sponsored children according to what they had told us they liked: footballs for the boys, skipping ropes for the girls, and a little play doctor set for Tick who had written to tell me that she wants to be a nurse when she grows up!

Other children were not left out. All the school children received a pencil case with pencils and pens. Then, it was time for the most important part of the day: Games!

There were the ever-popular games of football whilst everybody gathered and then the team games began. One involved eating a banana and then jumping up to pop three balloons hanging from a high string, all whilst tied to a partner. Another was called Eagles and Chicks, where the “Eagles” had to try and tag the “Chicks” which were protected by the “Mother Hen”. It was a fun afternoon with much laughter and friendship.

My husband and I have travelled off the beaten track with our children before but this was quite a different experience. They so enjoyed the opportunity to play with the local children (and were deeply impressed by their football skills!) and to see how they live. That is not to say that the trip was without its challenges. For instance, it was not easy to communicate with the children directly as they don’t speak English. So we were reliant on one of the World Vision staff acting as an interpreter. In addition, we all found it disconcerting and troubling to see the impact of malnutrition on some of the children’s physical development. My six-year-old was taller than many of the 10-year-olds and my 11-year-old daughter looked like an adult by comparison. But this was all part of the learning experience that I wanted my children to have.

For myself, I wanted to see how the money that we contribute through World Vision was spent each month, and I was not disappointed. I was impressed by the relationship between World Vision and the community leaders. The commitment for the long-term investments in health, hygiene and education were clear to see and the community was proud to show us the improvements they have made in the raising of livestock, provision of water pumps and education of their children. It was a trip that will remain in our memories when many other holidays have faded.

I would like to say a resounding “Thank You” to World Vision for all they do in Laos and elsewhere around the world, helping people who want to help themselves.