What you helped us achieve! A MUST READ!

This is to show you what was possible with the support and donations from our friends, family and supporters along the way. There are a couple of quite disturbing images on this post relating to UXO Clearance in Laos but please don't let this stop you reading to the end! These images and stories moved us very much and I promise you will be glad you read it all!

Our intention for this trip was to assist with Children's Education providing tools and transportation to those in need in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos as well as supporting the Mines Advisory Group and other such organisations like UXO Laos who are doing much needed work to clear what's left of the millions of tonnes of Unexploded Ordinance left over from the Secret War in Laos, something to our surprise Many Laotian and American folks don't know about. Whilst we did make a donation to UXO Laos directly of 400 THB, the rest of the money was spent on providing Education Supplies and Bicycles to Schools and villages all over Laos.

Below is a breakdown of the money we raised and where it all went :)

Much fundraising over the past 12 months was done by Chris's wonderful colleagues at his work, the National Service Management Centre for Downer Group in Ashmore on the Gold Coast. I won't name those involved as they know who they are and we thank you dearly for your support, as do the people of the LAO PDR. We raised funds in a number of ways:

Two Money Tins were donated to collect spare change over the past 6 - 12mths, the first of which raised $200 AUD and the second of which raised $207 AUD.

We also ran a Coffee and Cake Day where members of the NSMC Social Club got together to bake some wonderful Sweet and Savoury treats whilst David and Chris bought in some premium Coffee along with 2 Breville Espresso Machines which was an amazing success! We managed to caffeinate and sweeten over 50 staff that helped support our cause! A huge thank you to everyone involved, this was such an amazing day and your efforts and consumption have truly changed many many lives! We managed to raise another $250 AUD towards the cause. Bringing the total raised by the Downer NSMC Team for an overwhelming $657 AUD!!!

Just before we left we started an Indiegogo Campaign to support our cause and by the time we had reached Luang Prabang in Laos when the campaign ended, Friends, Family and complete strangers had made many donations giving us another $440 USD to spend on our cause.

This brought the total money raised to just over $1000 AUD! Fantastic effort to all involved and again, your support and generosity had helped change the lives of many people for generations to come!

So.... What did we do with this money?

Our first Book Party was a donation of approx 150 Books to the Ban Namsanam School in Khammouane Province, Southern Laos. Whilst we ran out of books for all the children on the day, we arranged to have Little Chris revisit with more books a few weeks later that we purchased when we were back in Vientiane.

Our next purchase was a big one, we purchased 400 ABC for Laos and Momosign Books from the printers as well as a dozen advanced learning books to Health Care professionals and teachers along the way. This brought the number of books purchased to about 560 books. As these books cost on average 9000kip each (approx $1.26 AUD each) this constituted around $700 AUD. The rest of these books were given to children and adults alike in small villages on the way from Vientiane to the top of Laos in Huay Xai before we crossed back into Thailand.

Whilst in Luang Prabang we purchased 4 x Bicycles and 10 x Very Nice Helmets to give to students at the LEOT English Learning School in Luang Prabang, one of which was put on a Taxi out to a remote village called Phonsay Village approx 60kms outside of Luang Prabang for a boy who travelled over 5hrs to get to and from school, hopefully this will put a significant dent in that travel time and will allow him to return home to his family from school more regularly. We put the helmet's on and stood in front of the classes with Big Chris giving the Lao students a very important message on how important it is to keep themselves safe and wear helmets, whether or not they think it makes them look less cool! Unfortunately the Lao Police do not enforce the rule of wearing helmets strictly enough and often will let someone off because they have just washed their hair!!! Absolute lunacy!

We presented a two students with a bike whilst the school kept the other bike to give to someone else that really needed it. Later that day we returned to the school to have Pizza and Beer with the Headmaster who is a lovely british gentleman who gained support to build and run the school, he told us that just after we had left earlier, the Girl we presented the bike to had come up to the staff and himself after class and said that Nobody has even loved her like that....... Needless to say we were in tears hearing that and were so proud of what all of us (including all of you) have done. The headmaster explained to her that her Mother and Father love her very much, they just aren't in a position to provide her with some things.... We left that night knowing 100% that what we were doing was absolutely the right thing to do and was really making a difference. All in all the 4 x New Bikes and 10 x New Helmets cost us 4,720,000 Kip (Approx $650 AUD).

The Bicycles and Helmets combined with the Books took our total Good Cause spending to approx $1350 AUD. A little more than raised but worth every dollar to help improve the lives of these beautiful people.

Whilst in Luang Prabang we also visited the UXO Laos Centre and saw first hand the damage that was and still is being done to the lives of these beautiful people by the relentless bombing by the allied forces around the time of the Vietnam war. To this day on average 1 person is killed or mamed by Unexploded Ordinace in Laos every single day! Hence this is the most bombed country on earth. As we were well aware we had spend alot more than expected to that point, we made a token donation at the UXO Laos Centre of 400 THB. We can only hope that by others learning of this more support can be given as there is so much need for donations to help clear farming lands still littered with unexploded Cluster Bombs killing and maming innocent people to this day.

If you would like to support or contribute to any of the causes that have inspired us and given us hope that there are some beautiful people in this world, please feel free visit some of the links at the bottom of this page to read and understand what it is they do to help these people.

Thank you again to everyone who has followed and supported us on our adventure, we are truly humbled by the support given and of course the reception provided by the beautiful people of South East Asia!

Returned home, we are so grateful and hope that our Son/Godson Mason Alexander Burrows will never have to deal with such hardship, we are blessed to live in a country where there is so much infrastructure and support from the government etc, that said just remember not to get distracted by what really isn't important. ALWAYS Remember what is important, that is Unconditional Love for your fellow Man or Woman, we are all on this earth for a finite amount of time, lets all smile and make the most of the time we have.

Respectfully yours, Christopher Jilley, David Burrows and Christopher Corbett! And of course Mark Knott! :D

Links to Good Causes:

http://www.motorcycle-tours-laos.org/ - Christopher Corbett's Riding Laos for Good Causes

http://www.uxolao.org/ - UXO Laos Organisation, Laos

http://www.maginternational.org/ - Mines Advisory Group, UK

http://www.momobooks.org/ - Momobooks with Martin Momoda

http://www.pencilsofpromise.org/ - Pencils of Promise, Laos

http://www.lelclaos.org/ - LEOT English Learning Centre, Luang Prabang

http://www.smileproject.us/ - Smile Project with Michael Sebastian