The Dormitory at Ban Xai for Hinmou Peung Children

One of the main reasons that we have done the school at Hinmou Peung (HMP) is because some children who are aged 8, 9 and 10 years old attend the school at Ban Xai and live in a dormitory near the school, by themselves.  Can you imagine your 8 year old fending for themselves, basically cooking rice every day, with no water or toilets?

The school at Ban Xai teaches from years 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.  After that the children go to Phoukood Intermediate School which is about 15 kilometres away.  Some children who have no relatives at Phoukood also live in this dormitory and ride their bikes every day to Phoukood School.  With the building of the school in HMP (which is 8 kilometres south and impassable by vehicle for 5 months of the year), it is hoped that a second teacher will be allocated and then Years 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 (composite classes) will be taught at HMP.  Year 5 will attend the school at Ban Xai and Intermediate students will continue on at Phoukood School – riding their bikes – and will live in the dormitory.

These current dormitories (see photos) have mud floors, inside cooking, no toilets, no water, no lighting and kids – girls and boys together – sleep on the floor.  Can you imagine what it’s like in the wet season?

What we want to do is to build suitable dormitories, toilets and water supply – but this is not in our budget.  The village of HMP has said that they will provide the necessary timber and labour to build a house.  What we need to do is to buy the materials which include sand, cement, gravel, galvanised iron roofing, nails, and toilet equipment.  We don’t know how much this will cost at the moment, but most likely it will be less than $2,000 – water is the big issue.  If you feel like donating towards this, please ask that your donation be used for “The Dorm”.