Corona Crisis

What a year it has been........

Laos border are closed exactly one year now…….
We are at Kajsiab very proud of each other that we managed to survive and have been together very creative to find solutions to get other forms of income now the restaurant and guesthouse are closed.
Eevery month it is been a struggle and thanks to many people who helped now and then for rice and education costs and thanks to the whole Kajsiab Team we are still here now.
But…….we are in huge trouble. The Kajsiab Team is working hard to grow vegetables and collect foods for the Shelter and also does a lot of embroidery work for after Corona times.
The Kajsiab Team can not meet the ends of monthly rice and education costs and electricity and water.
Over the past months we have received less and less donations and we can simply not ignore the fact that we are having more and more problems to meet the end..
Right now it is unsure if we can keep the Kajsiab Shelter open.
This week we will have meetings online and discuss options. We are all grateful for your help and support and if you have any ideas you can always email us at projectkajsiablaos.com
Donations can be made here : Donate for Kajsiab Shelter

The mountain population has too little knowledge and skills to seek the right medical help and forms of education. In addition, there is the lack of financial resources.
Kajsiab is a small-scale local project of the Lao Hmong mountain population in Northern Laos, province of Bokeo, set up by Lara Picavet from The Netherlands and Zjong and Nzoua from Laos.

Kajsiab's mission is to achieve a structural reduction of poverty and to increase the self-reliance of the local population.
Kajsiab provides information on healthcare and education and offers creative education, schooling, internships and medical workshops.
Kajsiab sets itself the goal
- to offer creative education for the women and children of the mountain people of Laos in the form of schooling, creative training and sports
- to create new sources of income and improve communication
- training and coaching to promote self-confidence and sufficient insight and knowledge to lead a self-sufficient and healthy life.
Kajsiab has a shelter, offers for creative education and training and runs a women's workshop.

1 - Kajsiab is small-scale and works individually.
This closes the gap between the mountain population and large information agencies.
2 - Kajsiab works from the beginning from the mountain population itself. Our approach makes Kajsiab one of the first in which the mountain population has fully set up the project, built it up, owns it and runs everything themselves.
3 - Kajsiab works with equality and cultural exchange. By living with volunteers from all over the world, the mountain population but also the volunteers learn that we are all the same in the end.

Project Kajsiab Laos consists of 5 small-scale projects.
- Kajsiab Drop-in Center - Shelter, information provision (information regarding health, medical care and education) and internship opportunities for the mountain population.
- Kajsiab Education -Care, guidance and education of children from the mountain villages, guidance in training for adults and training / internships at Daauw Home.
- Kajsiab Women's Workshop -Creating new shapes using old knowledge of embroidery and other local products, selling and generating new income, training, workshops, information provision and counseling of women in the health of women and children, contraception, STIs, pregnancy and teenage mothers.
- Kajsiab Villages - Local Kajsiab women and volunteers travel together to villages and provide creative projects and workshops; The aim is to create a more creative and flexible mind so that new future possibilities come to the surface of the local people themselves and start discussions about anti-conception, control over one's own body, pregnancies, future ideas, forming new incomes.
- Kajsiab Cultural Exchange -Daauw Home and - Future Organic Farm: Daauw Farm (working and living with volunteers and visitors from all over the world)

We have devoted ourselves twelve years of their lives passionately to set up a solid foundation for this project that is completely in the hands of the local mountain population.
It has been a strenuous road full of challenges, financially, culturally and organizationally, and now the project is ready. What we have built up over the past 12 years is so successful because the organization, knowledge, intrinsic passion lies with the local population and in all activities, respect for the own culture is primarily propagated. Kajsiab is now an example of what the world is currently calling out what a small-scale project should be like.
The real necessity of the mountain population lies in this tripod we have set up: education, health care and empowerment.
Now that we have achieved all this, however, we cannot reach our full potential due to lack of financial resources.

I personally experience this as heart breaking because we live and work together as family, experience each other’s stories, struggles, emotions, pain and heartache up close and see how our strengths are constantly being pushed back by a lack of possibilities.
But we will keep working and trying to find ways to become self-sustainable and we really do need your help and support in these times, so thank you all for supporting us!