March 8
International Women’s Day
April 1-1
Pi Mai (Lao New Year)
May 1
Labor Day
June 1
Children’s Day
August 13
Lao Issara (Day of the Free Laos)
October 12
Day of Liberation
December 2
/DRNational Day
Religion in Laos
About 70 percent of all Laotians are Buddhists. Another
1.5 percent believe in Christianity. The rest of the
population practices “unspecified” religions.
In its purest form, Buddhism is a way of life. The
Buddha was not a god but a teacher. After living
as a privileged but careless youth, Prince Gautama
Siddhartha abandoned his life of luxury in a search for
insight through solitude and fasting. It was through
meditation that Siddhartha achieved liberation from
all sorrow—nirvana—and became “Buddha” (one
completely awakened). In nirvana, it is believed that
all passion, hatred, and delusion die out and the soul is
released from the body. Buddha also understood the
constant motion of the universe and that everything in
it is subject to birth and decay. This motion is part of
the Dharma, the laws of nature. One of these laws is of
cause and consequence, or karma, which implies that
all actions have a corresponding effect. In essence, the
force generated by a person’s actions is a determining
factor in the nature of his/her next life. Buddhism
emphasizes five regimens: striving not to kill, not to
steal, not to engage in sexual misconduct, not to speak
falsehoods, and not to use drugs. Buddhist holidays
include Bodhi Day (December 8), which celebrates
the enlightenment of Buddha under the Bodhi tree;
Buddha Day (April 8), which commemorates the birth
of Gautama in Lumbini Garden; and Wesak (April/May),
the holiest of Buddhist holy days, which celebrates
Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death.
Animism is the term used to categorize the plethora of
localized indigenous religions throughout the world.
Animists live in a world dominated by a complex
interplay of spiritual powers—those of the creator or
creators (gods), the destroyers (demons), the forces
of nature, the deceased (ancestors), and the living
(healers or witches). The manipulation of such powers
through magic, to benefit humans, is subject to strict
rules, including rituals, sacrifices, and trance. Animists
believe that when people die their life force (soul) leaves
the body, joining the invisible world of ancestors. The
invisible world is also populated by nature spirits of the
wind, rain, forest, animals, and earth.
Additional sources include the CIA World Factbook and State Department websites.
Plan International USA is part of a global organization that works side by side with communities in 50 developing countries to
end the cycle of poverty for children. We develop solutions community by community to ensure long-term sustainability. Our
level of community engagement, long-term outlook, and constant focus on the needs and priorities of children is unique among
international development organizations. Our solutions are designed up-front to be owned by the community for generations to
come, and range from clean water and health-care programs to education projects and child-protection initiatives.
Promising Futures,
Community by Community
Plan International USA
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1-800-556-7918 • planusa.org
laos
January 1
New Year’s Day
Population
6.6 million
Capital City
Vientiane
Official Language
Lao (or Laotian)
Per Capita Income
US$1,260/year
Youth Literacy Rate
89% male/79% female
Access to Safe Water
83% urban/63% rural
Under 5 Mortality Rate
72/1,000 live births
Source: The State of the World’s Children 2014 (UNICEF)
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is a landlocked country in southeast Asia,
bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia
to the south, and Thailand to the west. The climate is characterized by three distinct
seasons. The rainy season of the southwest monsoon extends from June to November. It
is followed by a short, cool, dry period from November to January, which then develops
into a hot, dry season from February to May. Average daytime temperatures generally
range from 77 to 86 degrees, but can drop to 50 degrees in the mountainous areas in the
north. Generally, monsoons occur at the same time across the country, although that time
may vary significantly from one year to the next.
A Brief History
The Lao people migrated into Laos from southern
China from the eighth century AD onward. In the
14th century, the first Laotian state was founded,
the Lan Xang kingdom, which ruled Laos until it
split into three separate kingdoms in 1713. During
the 18th century the three kingdoms came under
Siamese (Thai) rule, and then in 1893 became a French
protectorate, incorporated into the union of Indochina.
France granted semiautonomy in 1949 and full
independence within the French Union in 1950. In the
following decades, several civil wars and revolutionary
movements prevented the country from achieving
any sense of real stability. In 1975, the Pathet Lao, a
Communist independence movement, seized complete
power. Since then other parties and political groups
have been moribund and most of their leaders have fled
the country. The monarchy was abolished on December
2, 1975, when the Pathet Lao ousted a coalition
government and King Sisavang Vatthana abdicated.
The Supreme People’s Assembly in August 1991
adopted a new constitution that dropped all references
to socialism but retained the one-party state. In addition
to implementing market-oriented policies, the country
has passed laws governing property, inheritance, and
contracts. In the February 2002 parliamentary elections,
165 out of 166 candidates were members of the
governing Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. In 2006,
Choummaly Sayasone became party secretary-general
and president of Laos. First Deputy Prime Minister
Bouasone Bouphavanh became prime minister.
Plan’s work in Laos covers four core
areas, all of which are rooted in the
rights of the child:
Early childhood education and development
Basic education and child protection
Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Health and nutrition
Early childhood education and
development
Plan works closely with government education services
to support early childhood education, including helping
communities to improve preschools; training preschool
teachers in stimulating and enjoyable teaching methods;
provision of books, educational and play materials,
desks, and equipment; curriculum development for
a short in-service course for preschool teachers; and
increasing awareness among key decision-makers at
the national level of the importance of early childhood
education.
Basic education and child protection
Plan works to ensure that primary schoolchildren
develop knowledge, skills, and behaviors to develop
to their full potential in safe and stimulating schools
by training teachers on positive discipline alternatives
to physical or emotional punishment; providing school
materials, teaching aids, and classroom equipments
and furniture; providing scholarships to enable the
poorest children to enter and complete education,
especially girls and children from ethnic groups; training
school and village committees on child protection; and
improving school water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Plan’s activities in this area include strengthening
communities’ capacity to improve their own health
situation through community-managed improvements
to the sanitation, hygiene, and water conditions;
fostering empowerment of women and girls, especially
with regard to decision-making about water, sanitation,
and hygiene; and strengthening the capacity of
provincial and district government to meet their
obligations to ensure safe water and sanitation.
Health and nutrition
Ethnic Diversity
Plan is working on designing long-term programs that
include strengthening the capacity of government
officials and village trainers to conduct village-level
nutrition training; providing materials on basic nutrition
to government and communities; and supporting
parents and caregivers in strengthening their
knowledge on nutrition and how to prepare healthier
food for children.
Half of the population is made up of Lao, while a
number of other ethnic groups make up the rest.
These include a mixture of groups known as Lao Thai,
Lao Theung, and the Lao Sung. There are also large
Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, and Khmer communities.
Economic Security
About 75 percent of the population live in rural,
isolated, mountainous villages. Villages are small
and widely scattered. Many are only accessible by
canoe or by hours or days of walking. Small-scale,
near-subsistence agriculture is the primary source of
livelihood for most of the population, supplemented
by livestock rearing, fishing, and collection of nontimber forest products. Full- or part-time employment
in other sectors is growing (e.g., handicraft production),
as is labor on the “modern” rural enterprises of dam
construction, plantations, and mines. Laos is a major
exporter of migrant labor, primarily to Thailand, and
there is also seasonal labor migration to the towns
within Laos itself.
Language
Lao (Laotian) is the official language of Laos. It is a tonal
language of the Tai family, and is closely related to the
Isan language of the northeast region of Thailand. The
writing system of Lao is composed of signs denoting
consonants with an inherent following vowel and is
closely related to the writing system used in Thai. It is
very likely that you will encounter a language barrier
in communicating with your sponsored child, as the
majority of the children do not know enough English to
write a letter. Those who cannot write will be assigned
community workers and volunteers who will explain
your letters and help the children compose their
responses.
Holidays
Holidays are very important to your sponsored child
and family. The most important ones have religious
significance: