Over 110 teachers and village leaders joined together for the two-day trainings. It was a rare opportunity for teachers to come together outside of their school setting with other teachers and administrators from their region.

Topics included best practices for teaching students about serious topics like: 

• Child Abuse – How to identify it and what to do about it 
• Drug Abuse – Encouraging kids to say ‘No’ 
• Safe Touch – Enforcing it in the classroom and beyond
• Keeping kids safe in their communities – what teachers/parents can do
   

We are thankful for this open door to make a difference in the lives of teachers and students in our community, and we want to ask for your ongoing support to make sure programs like these can continue. Please visit the TerraClear Donation Page for more information about how you can support clean drinking water in classrooms, schoolroom lessons, and empowering workshops like this one for teachers and administrators.

TerraClear has participated in the vaccination effort with 15 employees already fully vaccinated by the end of May. When the vaccine first came to Pakse, Champasak Province in mid March, TerraClear employees were first in line to receive the vaccine and be an encouraging model for the community.

At the vaccination centers, staff were protected by PPE and COVID protection measures were in place. WHO representatives were on site to answer questions and assure proper protocol was followed.

Due to active community support for the COVID lockdown, dissemination of COVID social distancing guidelines, and now with vaccine rollout, Laos is working hard to combat community spread of COVID. And TerraClear is leading the way!

COVID finally arrived in Laos. For one year, Laos was able to keep COVID at bay, by carefully requiring quarantine for all arrivals into Laos. For one year, the cases of COVID in Laos were less than 50, with no community transmission. Then, Lao New Year 2021 (April 14-16) was celebrated in a more normal way, with some group parties, gatherings, and celebrations. A few people crossed illegally from Thailand to celebrate the New Year in Laos, and unknowingly brought COVID and community transmission with them. On April 22, Laos went into full lockdown, barriers went up, and community life halted. I am really glad they did, because although the lockdown is still in place and we have had over 1700 cases and 2 deaths since mid April 2021, the community transmission is not worse. Laos’s medical system is less robust than India’s, by far. If Laos were to suffer from COVID like India has, it would be a massive tragedy. The lockdown is still in effect, at least through June 4. However, now the lockdown is in zones, depending on whether there are active cases, tracing to active cases, etc. For southern Laos, we are able to move more freely within our own districts. Thank you to the Lao government and World Health Organization for keeping Laos protected!

A few months ago our Social Responsibility Coordinator, Jood, facilitated a training on Child Protection with SFE, a non-profit organisation in Kapeu, Sekong. SFE is a long-standing, well-trusted partner who incorporates TerraClear ceramic water filters in their community development projects and target villages.

We were delighted to hear that after Jood’s training, SFE would be interested in joining together to plan a TerraKids program in the SFE’s six target villages in Thataeng district. The Education Team of SFE Kapeu, the Thataeng Women’s Union and Jood put their hearts and minds to planning and preparing these events.

Each classroom in the six schools received a filter, along with education on clean drinking water, handwashing and personal hygiene as well as Children’s Rights/Child Protection and a lesson on Good Touch/Bad Touch.

Sharing expertise and working together was very fruitful and everyone learned valuable lessons from each other. The lessons were interactive and attention-grabbing and there was much laughter and joy! A day full of song, dance, games, pictures and community. TerraClear celebrates the fact that six schools have clean drinking water in each classroom and that not just the children learned new things, but also the adults! Let’s keep growing towards a brighter future together!