Phouva Vorapanya our Laos Cultural Liaison for Ban Navangtai New School Project in Laos is proud to report the progress of the school construction. We thank you all for your continued support and belief in making a brighter future for the students of this school.

Ban Navangtai New School Project began in Winter 2008 with visits to the village by Asad Rahman & Olivia Lorge, directors of Project Enlighten. During the visits, we began identifying the school and community needs. Throughout

2009, there was a lot of planning and design approval that we needed to be coordinated with the Navangtai Village Chief and village members. Consultation took place with local officials from the province and the city to obtain building permits. In early January 2010 we began organized fundraising efforts for this program.

We are happy to announce that with your support we were able to start Phase 1. This was phase was the start of site

preparation and the laying of the foundation. In August of 2010 this was all completed by

local villagers whom all volunteered their labor and expertise to get this finished in two months.

Phase One is complete!

Ban Navangtai New School Project

FEBRUARY 2011 WWW.PROJECTENLIGHTEN.ORG ISSUE ONE

Education is a sustainable resource.

At Project Enlighten we strongly recognize that the value of a school is the learning thathappens in the classrooms.

Providing youth with greater educationopportunities and stimulating sustainable economic opportunities for local villagers.

Phase 1 included leveling and compacting of the site soil, footing and sand beds. Rebar and concrete were used for the footings and foundations, grade beams, sand and gravel beds and floor slabs.

Laos has two farming seasons, a raining season and dry season. During the raining season, there is a loss of crops due to flooding and therefore the villagers try to compensate by working extra hard during the dry season by pumping water from the river for farming. Phase 2, the building of the structure, was launched in November 2010 just as dry season began. The installation of window frames, door frames, construction of walls, and structural brickwork was initiated, however, continued work has been postponed until after critical dry season farming is complete.

We are look forward and are excited to start back up on this phase in the middle of February. Our goal is to complete phase 2 of construction in March of 2011 and move onto the final phase of this project, finishing the walls and roofing.

A gracious ‘thank you,’ is in order to all who have supported and donated to this school building project. Together we are making available, a quality place of higher learning and helping my village look forward to better educational opportunities. A special thanks is extended to Mr. Kenneth Perry who has spent countless hours to fundraise for our school project and to the local villagers who have donated their time and labor and will continue to do so throughout all phases of construction. You inspire us all.

Last, but not least, I want to thank the directors of the program, Asad Rahman, Olivia Lorge, and Mike Carroll for all of their support and for helping me to realize my dream of creating better educational opportunities for generations to come in my home village of Ban Navangtai. The people of my village and surrounding villages are rich in culture and traditions and I humbly believe that all of your donations, small and big, will continue to make a huge difference in improving the quality of life in Navangtai Village. Thank you so very much for touching many lives. I can only hope that we will be able to expand the same opportunities into villages outside of mine in the future.

Sincerely, Phouva VorapanyaLaos Cultural Liaison, Education Program Laos, Project Enlighten