| Peuan
Mit
The project started in May 2004 as a collaboration between the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and Friends-International, with the support of the Vientiane Municipality.
The official name of the project is “Building a sustainable street children project in Lao PDR – Implementation and capacity building”. For practical reasons of working with children it is commonly known as “Peuan Mit”, meaning Friends in Lao.
Peuan Mit is today the first and only street children project in Lao PDR.
The street children project is working with up to 1000 children and young people overall his activities.
The aims of Peuan Mit are to:
• Reintegrate street children into their society (family, culture, school, work)
• Prevent vulnerable children from having to work or live on the streets
• Build the capacity of the MoLSW for working with street children and their families in accordance with the Convention on
the Rights of the Child.
Activities
-Prevention: This project aims at reducing the number of new children having to live or work on the streets of Vientiane by:
-Developing support plans for target communities
-Developing a campaign aiming at eventually reducing the number of children from other provinces migrating for work on the streets of Vientiane.
-Supporting families for health care services, problem solving and income generation activities.
-Providing life skills and non-formal education to children and families through a Mobile School
-Outreach: The team is working on the streets of downtown Vientiane to establish contact with the children through games, hygiene, life skills education, counseling and support to leave the street life.
-Peuan Mit Center: A drop-in-center located very centrally in Vientiane (provided by the MoLSW), providing remedial classes, referral for vocational training, hygiene facilities, recreational workshops (arts, dance, drama…), sports, emergency shelter, life skills education and counseling sessions.
The center is open everyday and every night, as an emergency safe place for children who cannot be reintegrated immediately.
Street families are also invited to join the center for hygiene and for medical follow up.
-Vocational training: This project aims at providing marketable skills for gainful employment to young people and selected parents. The vocational training project is composed of:
- a mechanic class: a workshop was open in the center of the city providing real-life experience to the students
- a Cooking / Serving class: a restaurant (Makphet) situated on one of the main streets in Vientiane is providing real-life experience to students
This project is a first step towards the financial self-sustainability of Peuan Mit, since all the proceeds of the restaurant workshop will be used to fund the project activities. It is expected that the restaurant will be fully sustainable after 2 years.
-Reintegration: A team facilitates the reintegration of children into:
-Their family: including family tracing, family information, family assessment, identification of reintegration options with the children, family support plan and family follow up.
-The public school: support children to integrate the public school system
-The workplace: support young people to find employment directly or after vocational training
Please click here for full report
Peuan Mit – Building a sustainable street children project in Lao PDR – Implementation and Capacity Building
Phai Nam Road - P.O. Box 10688 – Vientiane, Lao PDR
(856) 21 261 389
laos@friends-international.org |
