By Didi Ananda Gaorii
Sunshine School is an amazing project that has a unique role in the educational sector of Vientiane city. The text on our logo says: ‘The Lao School with an International Approach’. Sunshine’s Lao staff and students learn to cherish their own cultural identity and language. At the same time, they develop the perspective and skills to be able to take a significant place in the global community.
Sunshine is a joyful, exuberant family. Our staff and students feel that the school is their second home. Our graduates never forget the warmth and care they experienced with their friends and teachers. Volunteers and visitors often comment on the special family culture that they feel while they are here.
Sunshine School, or Honghien Souliya (ໂຮງຮຽນສຸລິຍາ) as it is known in Lao, is situated in the heart of Vientiane, not far from the mighty Mekong River. Vientiane is the laid-back capital of Laos with less than one million inhabitants. The school is officially registered with the Lao Ministry of Education as a Lao kindergarten and primary school following the Lao national curriculum. It currently has early years classes from nursery to pre-school, primary school classes from grades 1–5, and four junior high school classes.
The school is well-known in the Vientiane community for its creative approach to education, its strong English language program, its vegetarian lunches, and inclusion of yoga and meditation as regular activities. The aspects of their school life that the students remember the most are the good camaraderie amongst the students and the staff, the special programs to showcase their creative talents, the friendship and sharing of skills of volunteers from all over the world, and the many exciting activities such as learning projects, youth camps, and field trips both domestic and abroad.
Project History
In 1996, when the school first opened, Laos, which due to Communist government policy had been closed to most foreign visitors for many years, was just starting to open up to the rest of the world. Didi Suceta (Surabhi) established the school with the help of donations from abroad, and a lot of hard work, dedication and cooperation from the Lao staff and community contacts.
During the first years, the school had a couple of ‘international’ kindergarten classes for the children of the ex-pat community, as then, there were few educational options available for the children of the foreign community. The fees from that ‘international section’ supported and subsidized Lao school section. From kindergarten the school soon expanded into having lower primary school classes. After Surabhi, Didi Ananda Shubhra took over for a few years and then Didi Ananda Gaorii took over in 2001. The new principal is Didi Maheshvarii.
From 1996 – 2001 the school expanded to a full Lao primary section. It was on a rented location and the buildings were all roughly made wooden structures with bamboo matting walls and corrugated iron roofs. The access roads were dirt lanes without any efficient drainage system, so the play areas were surrounded by marshy, boggy no-man’s lands. During rainy seasons, the school was subject to frequent flooding. The kids had to wade through ankle deep water to get to their classrooms which had been swept clean of muddy water by their teachers.
In 2001 many of the children from our international kindergarten classes started to transfer to the better equipped, air-conditioned options that were becoming available for them in the expanding city area. The decision was made to phase out the international classes and to maintain the Lao school by increasing the fees enough year by year to cover running costs. Thus we continued until 2006, when we were able to open our first middle school class.
In 2007 the owners agreed to upgrade the building structures and so, over the course of four years, the old wooden buildings were replaced (by the property owners) with more durable concrete structures. The rental cost, with new construction and inflation, increased tremendously and consumed a huge portion of the school income.
Still, from 2007 – 2016 the school continued to expand, and from 2017 -2019 we had a total of around 400 students and 50+ staff. In 2020, the numbers dropped slightly to 350 students and 50 staff. In 2023, due to the post-covid pandemic economic crisis in Laos, those numbers have fallen to 200 students and 35 staff. In 2010 we also were able to purchase Master Unit land and in 2011 we opened a free playschool for the village children on the MU that has 20 students this year.
Troubled times and miracles
Things started to change drastically in 2020. Due to the impact of the Covid pandemic, suddenly our wonderful school was in peril of shrinking away, when the need was to expand. So, due to a lot of insistent and persistent inspiration by Grace, we embarked on a new challenge, and took the big step to launch a major fund-raising campaign to build our own school.
The land, obtained due to the generosity of donors in previous years, is of an area big enough to accommodate hundreds more students. The original intention when the land was purchased was to expand to senior high school. That would have enabled our wonderful Sunshine family to grow and reach out to touch even more of the local community.
Now, by Grace, two and a half years on, we have completed the construction of 10 new classrooms on our own land. Only Providence knew in early 2020 that due to a post-pandemic economic downturn and over 100% devaluation of the local currency, we would not be able to afford to go on renting our old premises anymore. The new building has been completed just in time. In September, we kicked off the new school year with all our primary school and middle school classes at the newly built campus. Wow! That we have made it this far has been an absolute miracle. All the updates of our construction history have been posted here.
https://donorbox.org/build-a-school-in-laos-for-2022
New Challenges
Currently we’re facing the hurdle of the coming year. The move to the new campus has been overwhelming. Aside from the logistics and physical labour involved, it’s been so, so expensive. The cost of everything has been going up almost daily, as the value of the currency goes down at a similarly alarming rate. ☹
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66924300
Due to the move and economic situation, our student numbers are not yet enough this year to cover monthly expenses, even though we have no rent to pay at the new campus. Some parents have had to move their kids to other schools due to the increased travel distance, time and costs they would incur.
So, we are reaching out to supporters to seek sponsorships for the kids who come for free, and have done for many years. Most are our staff kids. If we could get sponsors for 18 of them, that extra income would enable us to move one more step towards consolidating the future of our ‘new’ school.
We’ve added pages to our website with photos and details about their families. We’ve six sponsors so far, only 12 more to go 😊 https://www.sunshinelaos.com/about-1
Sunshine has grown over the past 27 years from a kindergarten to primary and middle school. The premises have expanded and the buildings and facilities have improved each year. Everyone, the staff, parents, students, alumni and vast network of friends, would love to see us go developing.
We invite everyone to be part of this really inspiring story. In a country where good education is inaccessible to many children, your support will provide affordable global quality education to hundreds of kids. It will enable our dedicated staff to continue their work of improving the scope and positive impact of a great school. You can ensure the future of our unique and invaluable contribution to progressive, creative Neohumanist education in Laos.
For photos and videos of our school and the students’ projects, please visit our website and Youtube channel.
https://www.sunshinelaos.com
https://www.youtube.com/@sunshinelaos
https://youtu.be/K6I0LCy4kSE (this is a recent video made by a couple of Youtubers)