MiVAC Blog

MiVAC BLOG

Extracts of Hugh’s Ban Xai Report

28th and 29th November Peter Maroney, who has been the driving force behind the design of the biodigester, departed site yesterday (28th) and stayed the night in Phonsovan. Thanks for all your work and input Peter. The weather yesterday was terrible, raining heavily all day, so no work was possible.

Read More

Lao Culture- A Divorce Celebration.

Lao Culture- A Divorce Celebration. We, the volunteers at Ban Xai were invited to Yang’s sisters divorce celebration not knowing what to expect. The men and women are separated as the women prepare the meal and the men gather as the celebrant waves a handful of cotton threads over the

Read More

Hmong New Year at Ban Xai

The weekend of 15/16th December is the Hmong New year.  No work is done in the Hmong Community from Thursday evening to Monday morning. They celebrate! Hugh, our site Supervisor, says “it was great to witness the Hmong community celebrating, with the girls of all ages wearing their colourful and

Read More

Tasks for Group Volunteers

Tasks for Group Volunteers Since MiVAC has been at Ban Xai several humanitarian tasks have been identified that are not in the MiVAC MOU and therefore not in MiVAC’s Project Budget. The tasks still need being done to assist the people.  To facilitate this MiVAC can identify tasks and give

Read More

The Lions Club of Terranora Lakes

  The Lions Club of Terranora Lakes   PRESS  RELEASE    Lion Peter Maroney from the Lions Club of Terranora Lakes is currently in Lao PDR assisting the MiVAC Trust in their efforts to improve the lives of the impoverished Hmong people of the village of Ban Xai, approximately 30 Klm

Read More

German “TAFE” College in Phonsavan

German “TAFE” College in Phonsavan John Salter introduced me to this College – the “Integrated Vocational Education and Training School of Xieng Khouang” which is funded by  a German NGO and it is headed by a lady called Ingrid. The College teaches the following trades: Cooking, Carpentry, Electrical, Mechanical, Animal

Read More

Briefing on Progress at Ban Xai

Briefing on Progress at Ban Xai Peder Pedersen from The Charitable Fund suggested that we start now in briefing the Villagers on what we are doing at the Model Farm at Ban Xai.  On Thursday 8th November Michael and Yang briefed a group of Local Villagers, Foreign Affairs and Phoukood District

Read More

MOU Signing by Phoukood District

MOU Signing by Phoukood District The saga of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) commenced back in April 2012.  MiVAC thought that when the MOU was signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in the Vientiane Government, that it was all finalised.  But … oh no ! This was when

Read More