NEWS & EVENTS-MARCH 2009-PART 2
March 16, 2009
SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT TO RECEIVE
TEACHING CERTIFICATE
Each year for the past three years, Indigo Threads has had a
scholarship recipient receive their teaching certificate from the Pakse
Teacher’s Training College-Pakse, Laos. This year is no exception. In
June 2009, Ms. Outsawan, from Sekong District, will be among the honored
students to receive her certificate.
After graduation, she will accept a 2-year position as a secondary
school volunteer practice teacher near her rural village. She has lived at the college dormitory for
the past 3 years. Her village is remote
and inaccessible which hasn’t allowed her to visit her family often. Despite
health concerns, Ms. Outsawan has continued with determination to complete the
3-year training Program AND receive good grades. Ms. Outsawan’s achievements will be celebrated at a lunch given
in her honor by Indigo Threads with her friends.
CONGRATULATION, MS. OUTSAWAN. Be the best teacher you can be, giving young students a role model to follow.
Ms. Outsawan, right. Ms. Moomanee, left, 2007 graduate.
Indigo Threads will be awarding 2 new scholarships to the Pakse Teacher’s Training College in June 2009. These scholarships will be awarded to students from the Pakse Ethnic High School where the previous successful scholarship candidates were selected. The boarding school is for rural underprivileged students with good grades, enabling them to have opportunities they would not otherwise have. Achieving good grades through disciplined study habits are part of their commitment. Indigo Threads award requirements are to pass the entrance examination to the Pakse Teacher’s Training College, commit to a 2 or 3-year teacher training Program, maintain no less than a C+ grade average and study English for one year. The English study requirement has been added this year. It is becoming nearly impossible to be considered for any position without some English skills. As these students are far away from their families during the course of their education, Indigo Threads visits the students often, making sure they are healthy and monitors their studies. Indigo Threads has fallen short of the projected number of scholarship awards intended. You can support a student for 1 year for just $500.00 including tuition, room and board, textbooks, school supplies and uniforms. It’s a great opportunity to get involved in a long-term solution to Laos’s development. Laos is in great need of rural school educated teachers.
ADOPT A SCHOOL
ANOTHER WAY TO SUPPORT EDUCATION
Indigo Threads supports 6 schools in the rural poor areas of Pathoumphone District, Champasak Province. An additional 16 extremely poor schools in this same area need our support. Due to the lack of funding, Indigo Threads has had to exclude these schools from their education support Programs. With so many students and schools needing support, this is a heart wrenching decision. The primary schools population range from 95 to 170 students; 2 secondary schools population range from 800-1,000 students. The ADOPT A SCHOOL Program suggests, you select a school with the number of students you would like to support by providing students with school supplies twice a year, school uniforms and/or textbooks. Or you may want to replace the unsafe dilapidated desks they are occupying. Schools do not have sporting equipment; provide soccer balls with nets. Or support Indigo Threads School Lunch and School Health Check Programs. Or support funds to build a latrine or dig a clean safe well at schools. Or replace their rundown school (shack) with dirt floors with a modest enclosed appropriate school building. Perhaps, consider supporting all the above improvements for the school of your choice. ADOPT A SCHOOL will provide you with progress reports, photos and many grateful students. It is an easy way to get involved, giving you rewarding satisfaction knowing you are helping to educate these students. Indigo Threads will closely monitor the ADOPT A SCHOOL Program.
On behalf of the Laotian students, their parents, Indigo Threads and myself, we want to express our grateful gratitude TO YOU for your generous support. It is often difficult to understand the described conditions in Laos, when there is so little we can relate to. As the 2009-2552 Lao New Year (Pia Mai) approaches, April 13, 14, 15, we can join in celebrating our likenesses, our hopes and dreams, gratitude for what we have, good health and well being for our families and friends and a time of renewal. Thank you. Mary D. Meyer
HAPPY
PIA MAI, FRIENDS
Mary D. Meyer
www.indigothreads.org
mdmeyer@indigothreads.org
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