Xieng Khouang, Laos

Mrs. Khamsavanh is a 27-year old teacher at Lathngorn Village Preschool. Her preschool is one of many benefitting from Vitamin Angels’ Thrive to Five children’s multivitamin project in the Xieng Khouang Province of Laos. She lives with her husband and his family in a neighboring village that is about a 30-minute walk away from the school. Each day, she walks to and from school with her three month old son.

Mrs. Khamsavanh told us that she has seen a considerable change in the students in her class since they have been taking multivitamins. They are much healthier, they don’t get sick as often, and she can see a great improvement in both their focus and learning ability in class.

Mrs. Khamsavanh dreams of her son becoming a doctor one day so that he can help villagers who can’t afford medical care not to get sick. She would also love to have another child some day. I told Mrs. Khamsavanh that my wife is pregnant at the moment and that I am so excited to be a father and that I wanted the same kind of future for her children that I want for my own. She was touched at my expression and was very appreciative.

The family’s diet consists of rice, long beans and some leafy green vegetables. She grows what vegetables she can in her own garden, but must purchase any other fruits or vegetables at the market; something she can’t afford to do very often. Consequently, the family diet lacks variety and some essential nutrients. Mrs. Khamsavanh would like to grow a larger variety of fruits and vegetables herself but her garden is small and it is safer and easier for her to just grow basic staples. She would love to farm more land but she, like many others, is unsure of the safety of farming land surrounding her village. She is unsure of the risk that there may be UXOs (unexploded ordinances) in the land. The village chickens lay eggs but other sources of protein and iron such as pork and beef are very expensive for most of the poor villagers, so they are lucky to eat meat maybe once or twice a week at the most.

Our thanks to David Evans of Sanofi-Aventis for capturing this story while on an observational trip to Laos with Vitamin Angels.