Global Ministires helping develop social work capacity in Laos

Xuyen Dangers, has been employing her skills and training in Social Work in Laos for 10 years.

Xuyen Dangers, has been employing her skills and training in Social Work in Laos for 10 years.  But she has longed for the opportunity to help develop the local capacity for providing social work services.  Finally, the opportunity has come.
Working with an acquaintance in the Lao National Assembly, Xuyen has begun collaborating with the staff of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the National University of Laos.  She presented a workshop for them on the importance of social work and its history in Laos and Vietnam.  Following the workshop, at Xuyen’s suggestion, the Faculty visited the Donkoi Children’s Development Center and the Somsanga Drug Rehabilitation Center to see the programs in which Xuyen Works.  The Faculty has been offering courses in sociology, but as a result of Xuyen’s workshop and field work presentation the Faculty is planning to add a field work training component to their university curriculum in which students can visit and work with the staff at the Children’s Development Centers.  The students and Faculty of the Sociology Department are almost as excited about these developments as Xuyen is!  With this new collaboration, there is much hope for expanding the local capacity for dealing with the many social problems that challenge rural and urban communities in Laos.