Stories

A Lao female informal worker carries a stack of old cardboard boxes for recycling

COVID-19 and Responses from Laos and the Greater Mekong Subregion

COVID-19 has brought and continues to bring unpreceded challenges for many countries around the world. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, at this phase the virus had affected 114 countries and resulted in the 4,000 deaths globally.

A student from the National University of Laos hand a bamboo basket to a wet market vendor

Cutting Plastic Pollution in Lao Wet Markets

Wet markets are extremely common in Laos and are the most widespread venues for people to buy and sell meat, vegetables and other products. Although traditional forms of packaging still exist, single-use plastic is widely used.

TIME TO CARE - OXFAM BRIEFING PAPER

Economic inequality is out of control. In 2019, the world’s billionaires, only 2,153 people, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people.

EU-UXO Project: Changing Lives through Gender Action Learning System (GALS)

Meet Phone (right) and Thone (left). Phone and Thone are GALS champions living in Kohing and Huasing villages, respectively, in Houaphan province. During a gender participatory review with local GALS champions that took place from 26-30 August 2019, in Huaphan province, both women shared with us...

A group of young women from Thasommor Village

Small Enterprise for Big Dreams: A Pilot Initiative to Turn Passion into Economic Progress for Young Women in Laos

By Muksin Straker Cook | July 2019 In Laos, women face disadvantages in accessing economic opportunities, as poverty and wellbeing are highly gendered and associated with ethnicity, cultural norms and geography. Women generally occupy the lower rungs of the labour market and are more often excluded...

Garment Workers and Union Activism

A story from 2016 about how Oxfam helped garment factory workers in Vientiane, Laos. As manufacturing production has continued to expand in Laos, so has its need for trade union activism. The well-being of workers, especially women during reproductive periods, is often jeopardized due to the lack...

Ms. Chanpeng Sengmany, 38, of Ban Somsavath in Bokeo Province.

In her own words

Ms. Chanpeng - A story of change in her own words: “We’ve faced difficult times here. There were hardly any roads to our village, no health center and the village primary school only covered grades 1, 2 and 3. I used to take care of our children and walk many kilometers to get water from the river...

Sanamxay Flood Update: Support from Oxfam Continues

Article Date: November 19, 2018 On 9-12 August, 2018 Oxfam in Laos organized a distribution of hygiene kits at Pindong and Tamoryot evacuation centers to those who had been affected by the dam collapse in Sanamxay. It included 320 kits. Each kit consisted of detergent, shampoo, soap, toothbrush,...

Relying on One Another: Saving Groups by Informal Workers, for Informal Workers

Packing and weighing garbage, Vientiane, Laos Healthcare can be a challenge for those living in Laos, particularly for the poor. Public healthcare is only available to approximately 11 percent of the population and private alternatives charge prohibitively steep fees. Added to that, many labourers...