Happy Laos

Inside The Saoban Store

Liena Lacey is volunteering at Saoban, a store in the center of Vientiane, Laos that works with villages throughout Laos to produce fairtrade arts and crafts.

By itself, this is a cool story and Liena, an Australian, is doing great things here.

But there’s another project she’s helping out with that she so kindly shared with me. As it turns out, I met up with her a day after returning from a week in a remote Laotian village. Having spent time with so many amazing people in the village, the project below has even more meaning for me.

Liena and team will create a short film about happiness in Laos called “Happy Laos.”

I’m not sure how to explain it, but there’s something special here. This part of the world is by most measures “poor.” But there’s a strong spirit here, a happy spirit. I felt it when I was in the village and the foreigners living and working here can feel it too. In this movie, they want to help share it with the rest of the world.

I’m sharing the story now because they are trying to raise $4000 by the end of August to make the movie in time for the Asia Europe People’s Forum in mid-October. To get an idea of what the movie might look like, below is some footage they put together for a trailer.

If you want to contribute, click here. Even if you can’t or don’t want to contribute, I hope you find this project interesting and inspirational. It’s just a loose group of friends who live here and wanted to make a difference – sharing what they’ve experienced and gained in their time here in Laos.

Very cool.

I can’t wait to see the finished product. If it’s available online I’ll share it in a future post!