Laos
Vivid nature, voluptuous landscapes and a vibrant culture collide with a painful past and optimistic future to make Laos an enigmatic experience for the adventurous. Travellers relish its sleepy atmosphere and charming people. Nineteen Degrees’ programs in Laos provide students the opportunity to immerse themselves in Lao village life and work with local healthcare providers at a grassroots level. Nineteen Degrees’ programs implement the World Health Organisation’s top strategic priorities for Laos, including the mission to achieve the highest possible level of health for all people through health sector reforms, and to achieve universal health coverage by 2025 – one step at a time.
Facts
Population: 7million
Capital city: Vientiane
Currency: Lao Kip
Main language: Lao
Location
Laos shares international borders with China to the north, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, Thailand to the west, and Myanmar to the north-west and is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is a largely mountainous country and has only recently opened its doors to mainstream tourism and whilst the main tourist route through the country is now well trodden and visited much of Laos is yet to reap the benefits from tourism or development.
Project info
The Laos Primary Health Placement is in rural Northern Laos, a few hours north of the wonderful tourist hub of Luang Prabang, with a focus on community health outreach via mobile health clinics and health promotion activities, placing student groups in uniquely experiential situations that alleviate poverty, respect indigenous cultures and protect local environments whilst providing opportunities for groups to learn and practice skills in culturally diverse and challenging environments.
Opportunities
Incredible experiences are on offer for student allied health and nursing groups, working with the Pak Xeng health district to provide primary health care and education to communities who ordinarily do not have easy access to a service. The Pak Xeng district stretches north along the Seuang River encompassing approximately 50 villages with a population of 200-400 per village. There are small community clinic outposts and one district hospital in the region yet they are under resourced and staffed with only a small number of health care practitioners.
The greatest challenge of Pak Xeng District Hospital is to provide adequate health services to remote villages. Nineteen Degrees' Australian University health groups work with the local health care teams on a health outreach project operating mobile clinics in the villages stretching along the Seuang River.
Each day is spent at a different village setting up a mobile clinic in the community hall or school to administer basic healthcare and education using a family assessment model. Students complete basic health assessments and develop a diagnosis with their supervisors to plan and implement care.
Head to the Programs page to find out more.
“It feels unjust to see people struggling and know how easy healthcare is to access at home, but at the end of the day, the fifteen of us and our facilitators do our best to provide healthcare for these villages and know that these differences we are making that are trivial to us, could mean a difference for those in need .”
— Holly Morrison.
Bachelor of Nursing, Griffith University
In country support
Nineteen Degrees work in rural communities to promote community-driven sustainable development that place Australian groups in uniquely experiential situations that alleviate poverty, respect indigenous cultures and protect local environments.
We achieve this through long-term partnerships with host communities and focus on in-depth experiential-education travel listening to both university clients and the communities. In this way we help ‘change lives through travel’.
Get in touch
We hoped you enjoyed learning about our Laos programs on offer. To find out more information or to request a tailored proposal please contact us using the form below.