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Greetings,

I've just returned from visiting some of the remote villages in Laos where Oxfam Australia works.

Here in Australia, we tend to take things like clean water, a good school, roads and a regular income for granted. But for many of these poor communities, they are luxuries which simply don't exist. However, all that is starting to change.

Women in Phoupieng no longer have to walk to the river twice a day to collect water for washing and cooking - they can get clean spring water from tap stands near their houses. The young women of Dongxa village now run their own sewing and hairdressing businesses and no longer face the prospect of having to move to the city for work.

A new school building means that children from Nong Por village no longer have to walk for more than an hour over a mountain to go to school; and a new road linking the village to the district centre means the five-hour walk to the market is a thing of the past.

Meeting the villagers, sharing their lives, seeing Oxfam Australia projects in action and hearing how they have helped improve their lives so dramatically, was a wonderful experience and one that I will always cherish.

Regards,
Maureen Bathgate