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Oxfam Australia works with ethnic minority communities in remote areas of Laos to improve their livelihoods through small-scale irrigation, sustainable agriculture and income generation projects. Our work aims to strengthen community institutions, enhance the role and status of women and promote a better understanding of natural resource management.
Our focus
Sustainable livelihoods
We work with communities to help them develop sustainable livelihoods and manage their natural resources by:
- Constructing irrigation systems
- Providing training in agricultural techniques and technologies
- Building rice banks
- Developing income generation activities
- Building clean water systems and latrines
- Supporting community organisations to manage and implement development
Health education
We work to ensure communities have access to basic health services, including safe water and sanitation, and that people – particularly women and girls – have access to information on the prevention of HIV and AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
Making motherhood safer
Maternal mortality rates in rural Laos are among the highest in Asia, especially in parts of southern Laos where there are few skilled medical staff, and women traditionally give birth alone on a small platform in the forest. To help address the situation, we are supporting women in remote villages to be trained as midwives. They learn how to assist the mother before, during and after childbirth, provide hygiene and nutrition advice, and recognise problems during the early stages of pregnancy so that they can visit the nearest health centre.
Education
Education brings with it improved health, the chance of prosperity and hope for the future. We work with marginalised people, particularly women and girls, to ensure they have access to education.
For example, in Ta Oy district, more than 80 per cent of villages are without schools. By building teachers' houses and schools and highlighting the importance of education to parents, we have helped more children, especially girls, to attend school. Literacy levels in Ta Oy district and nearby villages have increased and girls are receiving greater respect in society.
Community-based disaster management
Community involvement in the design and implementation of a disaster response project is critical. We work with communities to establish early disaster warning and information systems in local languages and combine this with existing traditional disaster-coping mechanisms to mitigate and prevent serious losses of life, assets and food.
Gender equity
Girls and women of all ethnicities are often the poorest and most vulnerable. We work with communities to ensure that in the future, women and girls will be free from the threat of domestic violence, oppression and marginalisation. Through our gender equity and equality programs we hope to gradually reduce the patriarchal dominance in society and achieve greater equality between women and men.
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