UNICEF partnership with Lao animator flourishes as pioneering early learning clay-mation series enters third season

Animator Souliya Phoumivong sets up a new scene in season 3 of “My Village”

Picture a small road sidling along the Mekong River just outside Vientiane. Thailand visible just across the water. On both sides line row after row of family homes with motorbikes and pick-up trucks clustered outside. Most offer some kind of homemade business opportunity – a shop, food stall, a mechanic. Behind one of the houses, tucked away almost out of sight, sits an unassuming building. The faintly turquoise, washed exterior walls, pretty potted plants and ordinary appearance disguise the hive of creative activity within. Meet the world’s most unlikely Claymation studio.

Invest in the future, invest in teachers!

Teachers are an investment for the future of countries. What today’s children will face in adult life cannot be predicted and so the teachers of today and tomorrow need the skills, knowledge and support that will enable them to meet the diverse learning needs of every girl and boy.

Today in Lao PDR, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of World Teachers’ Day. The day commemorates the adoption of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the status of teachers in 1966. This recommendation is morally binding for all countries.

Claire's Accessories visit Lao PDR

Popular retail company Claire's Accessories visited us in late March to take a look at some of our education work in Lao PDR. Through UNICEF UK, Claire's are supporting the Schools for Asia programme.

The focus will be particularly on those who, because of their gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic location or poverty are less likely to get a quality education.

Schools for Asia countries include Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. Read more about the launch of this initiative here.

A video and more information will follow shortly, but in the meantime take a look at some photos from their visit. Click the icon in the bottom right to make the slideshow full screen.

 

From ‘Sesame Street’ to ‘My Village’

A shot from one of the final videos © UNICEF/LAOS/2014

"Remarkable” is a word ‘Sesame Street’ director and producer Lisa Simon uses many times during her two weeks in Lao PDR. Lisa and ‘Sesame Street’ writer Luis Santeiro were invited by UNICEF to support and share ideas with local talent to help plan ahead for season two of popular Lao children’s television show ‘My Village’.

“What these people have achieved in only five days is amazing. To think that on Monday 80 people were brought together, many for the first time, and five days later they will have a short film scripted, shot and edited is really, really remarkable,” says Lisa, clearly buzzing from the experience.

Community teachers in remote villages

Pheomeo teaches her class. (c)UNICEF/2013/S. Nazer

17-year-old village-teacher Pheomeo smiles when she was asked how she felt when her former pre-school students started primary school: "I was very proud and happy. When my children started there I went to watch them. I saw they knew how to sing the Lao songs, and I saw how much more confident they were than the other children who hadn't come to my class."

Most community based pre-schools claim similar outcomes. When entering primary school, children from pre-schools were emotionally and socially more developed than those who had no attended.

Community preschools: Reaching out to the most vulnerable

Saphieu, 5 ©UNICEF/2013/S. Nazer

Five year-old Saphieu, in a remote Akha-speaking village in far Northern Lao PDR, beams at her teacher when she is congratulated for the tower she has built with brightly coloured building blocks. The teacher has to make sure Saphieu is looking directly at her as she is deaf, and never speaks.

"I have to pay extra attention to her," explains the community teacher, 17 year-old Pheomeo. "I have to make sure she sees everything, and often I write things down for her. But she is very smart and picks everything up very quickly. Often, when I demonstrate something on the board for the children to repeat, I turn around and she's already completed it."

Community Based School Readiness

A photo essay on a recent UNICEF trip to Luang Nam Tha Province in Northern Lao PDR, visiting 'Community Based School Readiness' programmes in remote, non-Lao speaking villages.

Photos & Text by Simon Nazer