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June 2026
Summer recess
Regular schools in Luang Prabang are on their 'summer break' and will resume in September or, in some cases, October. For E4E this primarily means that we have to postpone our English classes at the local orphanage, as most of the students there will go the villages where they originally come from, mostly to help out relatives in seasonal farm-work. On our main location in Ban Phonphaeng, we continue our classes as usual, but also there we a similar trend of students going home to be with their families and help in the fields. Quite often these students have to travel long to get home, and therefore are not able to do this when regular schools are in session. As such they take more time during summer recess, only to return when schools start again after August. On the other hand, many students are from around town, and can continue their classes with us. In addition there are those with free time on their hands during the recess, which they choose to use to improve their English and thus join E4E for 2 or 3 months. It is therefore a time of fluctuating numbers of attendees at E4E. Inflation has been an issue for the last several years now, and, until today, is affecting people in a negative way financially. At E4E we also feel the effects - on several occasions we have been forced to increase both our tuition fees as well as the wages we pay our staff. This has made it harder for students to afford the cost for tuition and consequently we depend more and more on sponsoring in order to be able to accommodate the people who wish to come and study, but have limited financial means to do so. 'Recently' many young people are seeking their luck outside Laos due to more favourable prospects there. This is pre-dominantly a financially motivated choice, as the destinations are often not the 'havens' people hope them to be, but at least provide more money than can be made back home. Others, in their desire for improvement are 'caught' in illegal schemes, promising much, but delivering nothing but disappointment and financial loss. The luckier ones manage to obtain some kind of scholarship to study outside, which appears to be favoured to staying home and study at local institutions with limited future prospects. We experience the effects of it all at E4E, and times feel not as promising as they did 'once upon a time'. However, also these things seem to have a tendency of 'coming and going', and, with a more promising outlook towards the coming tourist high-season, we are upbeat and hopeful things will take a turn for the better again soon. Until then, and as usual, we continue to provide opportunities as best as we can, to those who choose them, in their pursuit of a better future.
E4E directions.
Positive outlook.