Jane Kennedy, Author at QLA Laos

This post celebrates some of QLA’s achievements in 2015, none of which would have been possible without our donors, partners and supporters. Thank you everyone and we wish you the best in 2016.

Medical Treatment for UXO Survivors

26 UXO survivors had the cost of their medical treatment paid for by QLA, including twenty three year old Chong Lee who endured 3 years of pain caused by a large piece of shrapnel that remained in his face until it was removed in 2015.

When the Interplast medical team came to Phonsavanh in December 2015, QLA referred UXO survivor, Mr Phimpha, who underwent surgery to improve the opening and closing of his eye, which is now much better. Thank you Interplast!

Education Support

21 UXO survivors, persons with disabilities (PWD) or their family members received
assistance with the cost of their continued education.

First Aid Training

100 people from 5 UXO affected remote villages received first aid training to strengthen their capacity
to provide first response first aid in the event of an accident.

New Houses for UXO Survivors and PWD

QLA worked with local communities to co-ordinate the building of 4 new houses for 3 high priority UXO survivors
and 1 person with disabilities and their families. As a result, more than 20 people were the beneficiaries.

Paralysed since she was 3 years old, Ms Dam was thrilled with her new house and new independence.

Income Generation: Advanced Handicrafts Training

Advanced technical skills training was provided to producers from 16 UXO affected villages
to improve the quality of their weaving and handicraft products and increase their income.
This project has far exceeded expectations.

Income Generation: Animal Raising Training

Animal raising training was provided for income generation for 181 UXO survivors,
PWD, family members and/or impoverished people living in Xieng Khouang province.

Provision of Assistive Devices

5 people with disabilities received simple assistive devices to improve their daily functioning and quality of life.

Disability Rights and Equality Training (DRET)

Disability rights and equality awareness training (DRET) was provided to 12 vocational trainers and medical staff
from the provincial hospital/rehabilitation center who interact with UXO survivors and PWD during QLA’s
livelihood training initiatives and/or in the provision of medical care.

DRET training was also provided to 40 village leaders from 20 villages
(in which more than 226 people with disabilities reside).

Good Governance

2015 saw the development of QLA’s first Strategic Plan…

and QLA’s first external audit was conducted by Ernst & Young Lao Ltd.

Participation at the Lao Handicrafts Festival

2015 was also the first year in which QLA participated at the annual Laos Handicrafts Festival in Vientiane,
to promote awareness of QLA and to sell handicraft products for income generation for producers.

Award for UXO Advocacy

2015 also saw Thoummy Silamphan (QLA’s Exec Director) receive his Advocacy Award from Legacies of War
for his many years of work advocating for UXO survivors. Manixia Thor from the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) who
is the Leader of a mine clearance team also received an award. Both Thoummy and Manixia were speakers in the
‘Voices from Laos’ tour of the USA in 2013.

UXO Survivor Information Centre

As part of the UXO/PWD advocacy work that QLA does, in 2015 QLA hosted more than 2100 visitors to its
UXO Survivor Information Centre in Phonsavanh (11% increase from 2014, which was a 42% increase from 2013).

Tree of Life

Visitors to QLA’s UXO Survivor Information Centre are invited to write comments and/or their thoughts about ‘Quality of Life’ and place it on QLA’s Tree of Life, which is displayed in the Centre. Below are some of the comments from 2015…

Thank You

Thank you to all of the donors, partners, visitors and friends who have supported QLA during 2015. To all of the UXO survivors, people with disabilities, their families and the impoverished people living in UXO affected communities in Xieng Khouang Province we look forward to doing our best to help improve the quality of your lives in 2016!

Kham is 51 years old and prior to his accident he was a farmer, married with two children. Kham also had previous experience working as a masseur in Thailand.

In December 2004, Kham was injured in a UXO accident which occurred when he was digging a water channel to his rice farm in Paxai District. Shrapnel injured his face and chest and he was blinded in both eyes. He was treated at the Provincial hospital for 28 days.

A few months later his wife divorced him and moved away. Kham then lived with his niece. Kham’s son is a monk and lives at the temple and his daughter moved away after she was married.

Over the 10 years since his accident, Kham had not sought or received help of any kind to improve the quality of his life.

QLA met Kham for the first time in November 2014 when conducting a survey in his village. Later in November QLA arranged for animal raising training to be held in Kham’s village as part of a project funded by EU/MAG. Kham attended along with the husband of his niece. After the training Kham received a small grant to buy animals and he used it to buy a pig and three ducks, which his niece is helping to raise.

In December 2014, QLA arranged for Kham to come to the Provincial Rehabilitation Centre in Phonsavanh, where he received a white cane and some training in how to use it. He finds the cane very useful and uses it every time he goes outside.

Shortly after, Kham attended his first meeting of QLA members (UXO survivors) in Phonsavanh. Like many UXO survivors, just to be away from their village for a couple of days is an adventure. For Kham, this was his first opportunity to meet other UXO survivors and experience peer to peer support and know that he is not alone. He had good conversation and fun with more than 30 other UXO survivors. He participated in a trivia quiz (amongst other things) which included fun questions and also questions about disability rights, which really got the discussion going. At that time, Kham also met Mr. Lue Ha, a blind UXO Survivor who works as a masseur in Xieng Khouang.

Shortly afterwards, QLA facilitated a further meeting for peer to peer support between Kham and Lue. They also discussed the techniques of a blind masseur, which really raised Kham’s spirits, because of his previous experience as a masseur.

QLA has since funded Kham’s trip to Vientiane where he is now studying at the School for Blind Masseurs. Because of this previous experience, Mr Kham is already able to earn income through massage while still studying. He is very busy and has many customers. He told QLA he has made many friends and said that his life is much happier than before. Kham plans to stay in Vientiane until he completes his study, after which he will return to Xieng Khouang to work as a masseur.

Author Archives: Jane Kennedy

Overview of QLA’s Achievements in 2015

‘Feel good’ story of UXO survivor