See the previous posts about our Income for Life Preschool at these links before reading this post:
Where should we build our Income for Life Preschool?
According to the information I received from Room to Read, our second choice to build our preschool is Laos. Room to Read was established in May of 2005 in Lao. Laos is one of the least developed countries in Asia. Educational indicators in Lao PDR are dramatically low, and represent one of the main bottlenecks in sustainable development and poverty reduction. Insufficient classrooms, lack of text books, educational supplies, teacher's books and lack of libraries are the main constraints in basic primary education, and this leads to low access rate and low quality of education in the country.
Room to Read's programs are particularly applicable in the Laos context. Room to Read Laos partners with the Ministry of Education and the Department of General Education to ensure their work meets the educational needs of the country. They are running three programs, including building schools, establishing libraries and printing local language children's books in Laos.
Laos has a great need for new schools, as the educational infrastructure is very underdeveloped in the country. In 2005, Room to Read launched their School Room program by selecting eight communities to collaborate with for biding new schools and have since expanded their work.
An important aspect of their School Room program is the "Challenge Grant," whereby communities co-invest with them in each school project by contributing land, materials and labor. The communities average a 20% contribution to each school through the Challenge Grant. A Construction Committee is formed in each community to oversee the project and to provide full transparency of the construction budget. Room to Read Laos hires one or two technical persons in each community to manage the project and supplies all the necessary materials. A majority of the construction work is then done by local volunteers from the community, who take pride in building the school for their children by themselves. All schools are constructed using good quality construction materials, such as concrete, to ensure that they will last a long time. To ensure quality of the construction process, the School Room Program Officer visits the site regularly along with the staff from the government's education department to monitor the work.
Room to Read's plan is to build 24 preschools in Laos.
So far we have raised about $14,000 towards our Income for Life Preschool. We still need to raise more money to completely fund our project. We are about 70% there now. We definitely need your help to complete our Income for Life Preschool.
First, we need to choose a location for our Income for Life Preschool. Then we need to raise the remainder of the money required for completion. If you would like to make a donation, contact Trish in my office at 440-549-5942 or by email at [email protected]. Take a few minutes and think about the two locations for our preschool. You can read about our first location here.
In tomorrow's post, I'll give you a chance to vote on which location you would like for our Income for Life Preschool. Your vote definitely counts. Remember, the impact we will have together on children for generations to come.
Rob Minton
P.S. Later in the week, I'm going to post a video of the first part of my presentation titled "How to Teach Our Children to Be Financially Independent." You don't want to miss out on this video. Add your email address in the box on the top right hand side of this page to receive future blog posts automatically!
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