Positive developments in Nong and Sepone
Last May, I traveled to Laos together with Marloes Zwagerman from the AFAS-Foundation to visit the municipality of Nong and Sepone with my Laotian colleagues – Joy, Fine, Sivone and Done. We particularly visited the villages where MCNV and the AFAS Foundation support the Mother & Child program. A special visit because a private foundation such as the AFAS-Foundation has never visited the program before. The responsibility for clean water, latrines, medical care and attention to nutrition is taken seriously not only by the local partners we work with, but especially by the villagers themselves.  They have gained the experience that they can contribute to these positive developments themselves and that is the most important condition for success.

Nong will continue on his own from 2025
In 2006 – at the request of the border province of Savannakhet (in Laos) – we started providing assistance to the municipality of Nong. The activities at that time were mainly aimed at improving food security. Gradually it became apparent that more was needed and so we started looking for new financing. In 2016, we submitted an initial application to the AFAS-Foundation to realise multi- year plans for food security, better child health and structural changes for the families in Nong. The application was honored and the program was successfully implemented. A second application followed in 2021 and we are now in the final year of our second partnership. Bringing about changes requires a lot of patience and a lot of money, this is a good example of that. At the end of 2024, we will transfer responsibilities to our local Laotian partners in the municipality and the province. We have thus achieved our goal in Nong and we are convinced that the program with all its activities is strongly rooted and will continue to develop.

Sepone would like our support and cooperation for the coming years
In the Municipality of Sepone, we started the Mother & Child program in ten villages almost three years ago, a similar program to that in Nong. Developments are moving rapidly and major steps have been taken. The villages we visited looked  clean, equipped with latrines, running water, and vegetable gardens. Clean water in particular is such an important basis for health and hygiene and makes growing more food close to home possible. We received a great contribution from our MCNV-donors for this purpose in December last year and this money was well spent!

Our question to you
The head of the villages, village health workers and other key figures explained in detail what has been done, how people experience it, how important knowledge and skills are, that there is more shared responsibility and of course they also indicated what else is needed.
We therefore want to continue with the activities in Sepone in the near future. We are currently working on a new application for financial support from the AFAS-Foundation. Your contributions are also indispensable.
That is why we ask in this newsletter to make an extra donation to continue these activities in the field of water and sanitation, care for mother & child and food security.
Many thanks in advance for the extra gift,

Karin Vlug, also on behalf of Joy, Fine, Sivone &Done

Independent future
The experience that MCNV has built up with successful projects means that the government in Laos is gradually showing the willingness to continue and co-finance these activities. It is one of the objectives and principles of MCNV that government involvement in more remote areas increases and that the government increasingly recognizes the importance of a healthy population, even where people are difficult to reach for existing national programs. such as vaccinations. With our interventions, MCNV wants to bring about change in the health system.

By investing now in training and resources, developments can be sustainably integrated into the existing (health) system, ultimately financed by the local and national Lao governments.