LAND & HOUSES FOR STUDENTS
There’s a strong migration of people living in rural communities into Vientiane to study at high-school and university. They stay with family members, like an older brother or other family who have already made the transition. Where they don’t have family available they share “garage” type boxes with primitive facilities and get jobs to pay living and schooling costs.
AEDECOL and other sponsors help out a lot with ongoing expenses but they always worry about not having a roof over their heads if they lose their job or sponsor money dries–up.
AEDECOL and other sponsors help out a lot with ongoing expenses but they always worry about not having a roof over their heads if they lose their job or sponsor money dries–up.

I decided to buy a piece of land for my student Chan and his cousins, nephews, nieces, sisters about 10 to 20 young people, so that they could have their own accommodation for the future.
In February 2015 we found 600m² of land about 20 kms from Vientiane with a good access road for a price of $35 per m². As foreigners can’t own land in Laos (unless it’s owned through a company with a minimum capital of $500000), the land title is in Chan and his family’s name.

Next steps were to drill for water which we found at a depth of 45 metres and install a pump, pipes and taps; dig-out holes to install septic tanks for WC and waste water; install electric posts and get the Electric Company to bring an electricity supply from the nearest point about 1 kilometre away; level the ground, cut trees and fence it off.

Older cousins with experience came to build the foundations, plant concrete posts and put a roof on the first house.

From then on Chan and his nephews, nieces, friends etc built the house walls, floors, plumbing and electricity, for a bedroom into which they all moved immediately, sleeping on the floor and living in the most primitive manner (still going to school and working!)

I bought cement, sand, stones, bricks etc and they did all the building, over a period of 18 months adding walls to make bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, installing windows and doors, plastering, tiling, painting so now they have 3 houses, one for Chan with a bedroom for me when I visit, one for his sister & her husband and the first baby to be born there,
There are about 15 people staying there in quite good comfort all of them from villages in the country-side around Sam Nua in North-East Laos on the border with Vietnam 500 klms from Vientiane. They organized a big party to celebrate their new houses, no furniture so eating on the floor, cooking everything themselves on wood fire stoves, using lots of local green vegetable , frogs, snakes, snails, leaves and herbes found in the “jungle” close by.
2016

In January 2016 I bought an adjoining piece of land about the same size in the name of another student, Somphong, from Luang Probang. I paid 50%, he and his family raised 50%, he has land title for 100%.
Within a week of receiving the Land Title a construction gang of 10 family members from Luang Probang arrived by truck with tools and building materials.
First thing they did was to construct temporary accommodation for themselves under the trees, with wood planks they brought, and cooking utensils, sleeping bags, mosquito nets etc.
They went fishing and hunting for food in the “jungle” around. Catching and cooking snakes, mice, rats, frogs, grasshoppers, snails and picking leaves, plants etc they never went short of food.

After a big party to celebrate Somphong’s “dream house” the cousins departed for their villages around Luang Prabang.

Since then Somphong, brothers and cousins have continued to build bedrooms, water well, install electricity etc, and make the house more comfortable for about 10 people aged from 19 to 26 living there all with jobs and going to school too.
I’m looking for another adjoining piece of land to repeat the experience; it’s been so gratifying and fundamentally useful for so many students and families who help each other so generously.