Rural Skills Training

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’. This is exactly the thinking behind CRY’s partner project in Laos.

Good nutrition consists of an adequate, well balanced diet allowing good physical and mental development and long-term health. Sustained poor nutrition in children leads to a state called ‘stunting’ where a child has reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development and reduced productivity. In Laos, 44% of children under 5 are classified as stunted. The cause of this is complex, but a lack of a varied diet is part of the problem. For most children, 80% of their daily calories come from rice, and nearly half of children have Anaemia.

Fish and mushroom farming are a simple and effective solution to this. If families are able to fish, they are able to diversify their nutritional intake, adding some much needed protein and fibre into their children’s diet. They are also able to sell on any surplus fish to make money and become self-sufficient.

Alongside the farming projects, our partners are also running rural employment skills training. They train young women in employment skills through sewing and beauty salon training, so that they are able to earn an income to support themselves and their families.They also run motorbike training to teach young people how to fix motorbikes as a way of earning income.