Simple but effective: Water taps in remote areas

Ms Bou and her grandson © UNICEF/Laos/2014/S.Nazer

A simple water tap can bring huge benefits to many people, especially for women and children in rural areas who are often burdened with the responsibility of collecting and carrying water each day. In Yang village, in the northern province of Luang Prabang, villagers spoke of how new water taps have helped change their everyday lives for the better.

Ms Bou, a grandmother of one who thinks she is around 50, sat with us in a dusty wooden village meeting hall to talk about how things have changed since she was young. As a young girl and later a mother, she recalls how tiring it was collecting water with children.

Creating Lao 'Superkids'

A mother feeds her child food with Superkid
 (c) UNICEF/Fitzgerald
 

A mining company, UNICEF and 4 million sachets of powder called Super Kid – see the link there? No, perhaps not the most obvious. But today marks a very special day with a new product launch in the southern city of Savannakhet, Laos that will keep Lao children healthier and happier, and that’s all down to a very special partnership.

The initiative aims to dramatically reduce aneamia and other nutrition issues affecting young children in three of Laos’s southern provinces by providing a powder full of vitamins and minerals to sprinkle over food.