End of Year Report

The Needs or Wants blog has now been running since September and I want to thank everyone who has shown an interest and donated some money towards the little projects that I have been involved with.  In a little over 3 months we have raised a total of $1178.75, broken down as follows:

Santi's Soccer Academy:         $422.50

Language Lessons for Kheua:  $356.25

A Book for Every Child:          $400.00

Total:  $1178.75

This may not seem like a lot of money - in fact it is not a lot of money - but it has made a direct impact to quite a few people over here in Laos and I plan to continue helping out these guys and also finding new little projects to get involved with and help out where I can.  Following is just a quick wrap up/summary for each project for the year...

Santi's Soccer Academy

Raised a total of $422.50 which has been used to purchase sporting goods and equipment - soccer boots, balls, marker cones, socks, goal keeping gloves and shin pads - for a group of at risk kids who live in a village on the outskirts of Vientiane.

With the assistance from all of the Australian volunteers currently in Laos, we organised an end of year BBQ/Christmas Party out at the village where we gave the kids a pair of new soccer boots each, and then played a friendly soccer match against them in which they quite convincingly kicked our butts - the training and guidance they have been receiving from Santi is certainly evident!

A fun day was had by all and a an extra big thanks to the Australian volunteers for participating and coming along.  Check out photos here - End of Year BBQ Photos

English Language Lessons for Kheua

We raised a total of $356 with the target being $500 which pays or Kheua to attend English lessons to prepare her to apply for and undertake an overseas scholarship in the hopefully not too distant future.  Part of the deal with Kheua was that she had to achieve and maintain high marks with the course, which I am happy to say she has done, maintaining above average results for all units.  

Well done Kheua and good luck for next year.  Many thanks to all who have helped Kheua out thus far.

A Book for Every Child

In a relatively short period of time the target $400 was achieved and I have been told that there is more donations on the way from fund raising activities in Australia.  Note that just because we reached the target does not mean that we don't want any more money!  The $400 funded a single book party in one village, and there are plenty more villages in Laos that can benefit so please keep the $ coming in.  Every time we accumulate $400, we'll organise another book party.

Thanks again to everyone that has helped out.  I hope you all have a great break over Christmas and enjoy the holidays. 

Thanks, Joe.