Empowering Families in Laos
Displaced families in Laos find success farming silkworms
In the far northeast of Laos, Southeast Asia, there is a patch of earth about the size of two soccer fields. Mr. Bunnyong can be found hard at work between the rows of 18,000 mulberry trees he planted there several years ago.
Since then, those mulberry ‘seeds’ or saplings—provided through the generosity of Canadians like you to families in need—have grown to become the food source for a unique little creature Mr. Bunnyong raises to earn income for his family: silkworms.
The mulberry leaves provide great nutrition for Mr. Bunnyong’s worms, whose cocoons are used to make valuable silk thread. Special proteins in the critters themselves can also be harvested for use in hand creams, soaps, and other marketable products.
“I will continue working with the silk project, as it provides me with income more than other work,” Mr. Bunnyong shared at a village meeting.
“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him” (Proverbs 14:31, ESV).
Samaritan’s Purse and a local partner organization run this agricultural initiative in order to help impoverished families in Laos earn a better income. “Many, like Mr. Bunnyong, have been uprooted from their traditional lands as a result of hydroelectric dam construction. Most are ill-equipped to face the future after being relocated away from the land they’ve long-cultivated and the rivers that generations of their ancestors have fished.
Your donations toward seeds and tools help people like Mr. Bunnyong, who is hoping to double the size of his mulberry fields one day and who requires special tools including a ‘rearing hut’ to raise his worms well. He is learning from his mistakes along the way; if anything, they intensify his determination to succeed as a silkworm farmer.
Students of the trade encounter Christ in a powerful way too through the faithful witness of our local partner—so much so that 12 were recently baptized. Praise God!
Today, your gift toward agricultural seeds and tools, training and resources can bring hope to impoverished families like those in Laos. Let’s be generous toward the poor, and in doing so, bring honor to our Maker.