Simmano flooding
Floods in several provinces inundated about 75,000 hectares of agricultural land in August 2008, of which 43,661 hectares of crops were damaged. The worse floods since 1966 have inflicted damage worth hundreds of billions of kip, destroying farmlands, irrigation systems, roads, schools and houses, according to official reports. About 140 schools in 22 districts were affected and will cost about 3.2 billion kip to renovate. Damage caused to animal husbandry and fisheries will cost about 5 billion kip to repair. Many roads were also affected and it is estimated it will cost about 293 billion kip to repair them.
Simmano village was one of the most affected areas and unfortunately much damage was done to the library building which we built in 2006, where most computers were destroyed. Also severely damaged were the classrooms which we repaired and repainted in 2007.
The Foundation provided medicine to every household of the village as soon as the water receded.
Flooding Repairs (Supported by World Wine Tour 2010)
In February 2010, a team from LRF, that included Georges and Anja of the World Wine Tour 2010, went to Simmano Village to commence the Flood Recovery Project. The team began the project by sorting through the existing furniture to determine which were salvageable and which were beyond repair. The furniture that was repairable was fixed and repainted. Unusable furniture was replaced by new desks and chairs built by local artisans. The team additionally repainted the walls and chalkboards of the school. Every single student and teacher volunteered to help with the project. The tools used for this project were generously donated by S and S Supplies & Solutions of Benicia, California, who had them shipped by DHL to Laos in time for LRF’s team arrival. |