Earlier this month I returned to Laos to continue work on a couple of projects there. Village Focus International and a local government hospital sponsored a three-day workshop in Pakse (Southern Laos) on health and human trafficking for health care professionals and other key stakeholders. On the first day, two colleagues presented on general topics of trafficking in persons and introduced a draft of a manual that will standardize care for trafficked people. The other two days I presented a full workshop on the holistic care of trafficked people as well as how health care providers can uniquely address human trafficking in their setting. Approximately 32 doctors, nurses, social workers, and other stakeholders attended the workshop and if I can judge by the response and interactions from the participants, everyone took home a few nuggets of knowledge. I’ve been asked to return to present the same workshop at another venue in September.
A group of us are currently developing the aforementioned manual to standardize care of trafficked people in hospitals, clinics, and aftercare organizations. It is truly a privilege to work alongside with these professionals who truly care about doing their best to care for the exploited. Indeed it is a time of mutual learning as I’m taking in so much about the country, the culture, the government. and the situation of trafficking there.
Furthermore, I’ve recently joined a group of researchers addressing human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases along the infrastructure rapidly developing throughout the country. Hopefully, this will turn into a long-term engagement and that real fruit will come of it.
If you are interested in learning more about the two-day workshop that I have developed, please contact me through this blog or by email at go.relentless@gmail.com. The workshop can be modified to fit into whatever schedule you have or modified to fit a certain type of audience.
This makes me smile!
Hey Kath! Sounds as though you are busy as usual and things are progressing to your satisfaction – although the going is probably slower than you would like. Question: How much do you want for tent rental? Last Friday night Josh, Grayson, and I had a camp-fire cookout and then spent the night sleeping in a tent. I had planned to use my larger red/gray tent because it smells lots better that my old green one. After looking all over for it with no luck, I was in the process of setting up ‘old stinky’ when your mom said ” Why don’t you use Katherine’s tent?” So… I set up yours. Turned out that Josh brought a really tiny tent which JUST fit the two boys. They slept in it while I bunked in yours. Hence the question: how much for rental? Till later….. love , Dad