Farming in the Laos’ remote mountainous villages is extremely challenging.
Many families, particularly in the mountainous north, struggle to work small plots of land, relying on the production of cash crops like corn as a source of income.
Only one third of farmers grow additional crops. Many don’t cultivate enough to get them through to the next harvest, and struggle to adequately feed their children.
The lean season, which lasts from June to October, is particularly tough.
Heavy rains or an insect or rodent infestation can leave families with little food, no seeds, and no cash.
According to the UN World Food Programme, an estimated 30% of the population has insufficient food for more than six months of the year.
ChildFund supporters have been helping by giving seeds to parents like Mon, who struggled to provide enough food for her three daughters; Pom, 18, Peng, 15, Vongphet, 10, and her 13-year-old son, Pheangvanh.
Somphanh never got to see what his country looked like before it became one of the most bombed places in the world.
Born in northern Laos in 1973, his entire life has been lived in the aftermath of a war that ended 45 years ago – a war in which I, and many other Australians, served.
Between 1964 and 1973, more than 2 million tonnes of ordnance was dropped on Laos in an attempt to block the Ho Chi Minh trail. Effectively, one bombing mission took place every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years. Almost a third of those bombs failed to explode on impact and today litter the countryside, lying in deadly wait for a local farmer or curious child to make one false move.
The effects on families like Somphanh’s today are far-reaching. Their livelihoods have been constrained by the limitations of having vast tracts of land contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXOs) – land that could otherwise be used for cultivation, for schools and hospitals, for new roads and infrastructure.
The father-of-three often spends five days at a time away from his family, toiling on a corn farm near the Vietnam border. The farm does not produce enough income to provide quality food for his children. As a result, when his oldest daughter, Oudai, was 11 years old she was the weight of an average Australian eight-year-old and feel ill so often she had to repeat Grade 3.
Somphanh’s second oldest, 11-year-old Khamsawei, complains about headaches and stomachaches and says she’s unable to concentrate in class because she is so tired. This is a common complaint from children who do not get the proper food and nutrition they need. Not only do these children miss out on a childhood filled with laughter and joy, they can become locked in a cycle of poverty that will ultimately affect their children, and future generations.
