Here's some information about the different kinds of transformational projects we've completed since 2011.

education, hill tribes, MAE HONG SON

As of 2019, we’ve built two schools in Karen hill tribe villages in Mae Hong Son province.  Students get a head start on their education for free, and the government provides the nutritious food necessary for their mental and physical development. Mothers have more time to work throughout the day, and students get an early start learning Thai, which they often don’t learn at home.

CLEAN WATER PROJECT, HILL TRIBES, MAE HONG SON

In early 2016, Village to Village worked with local leaders to develop a clean water system in a remote hill tribe village in Mae Hong Son.  By running several miles of pipes down a mountain from a mountain spring to this remote Karen hill tribe village's well, VTV has provided the community with access to potable water.  Clearing the dense jungle foliage and laying the pipes required help from the entire village.  It was a great team effort and demonstrated the community ownership of the project.

SANITATION PROJECTS, LAOS AND TAK PROVINCE, THAILAND

Prior to 2014, there were no sanitary bathrooms with running water either in the local school or in the village of Na Som, Laos.  To address this serious public health issue, we built the first public restrooms in the village, right next door to the school.  After construction finished, we began working with the school administration to teach children the importance of proper hygiene.  This initiative has improved community health throughout Na Som, and both village leaders and school officials have reported that there are now fewer outbreaks of communicable diseases.  

In September 2016, after seeing the lasting success of our prior sanitation initiative in Na Som, we decided to emulate this model on a larger scale in a Karen hill tribe village in the Tak province of Thailand, near the Burmese border.  We built four bathrooms at the school in this village, and have worked with school administrators to create a supplementary hygiene and sanitation course.

MONSOON season preparedness, laos

Na Som is a rural Hmong village located in Northern Laos, far away from any major city in Southeast Asia.  Village to Village has been working closely with this community since September of 2011.  Several of our first projects here were based on preparing the community as a whole for the monsoon seasons, which last for several months during summer, and often bring torrential downpours on a regular basis.  We realized that vulnerable populations-specifically, children and the elderly- did not have jackets, or even a change of clothes.  To address this issue, we have completed several trips to Na Som, and provided villagers with rain shells, jackets, and t-shirts.  We've completed several other public health initiatives in Na Som, and look forward to future collaboration.

Home construction, Thailand

Since 2013, we have constructed several homes for at-risk family in rural Northeast Thailand.  The families we decide to support often have both young children and elderly family members, and are living in makeshift, unsanitary housing prior to VTV intervention.  Proper housing has allowed them to get back on their feet, and each family we have helped is still happily living in their new home. In May 2015, we finished our most recent home construction project for a family of five with both young children and an elderly grandfather, who had lost their home in an employment scam, and had been living in a decrepit shack on their farming land.