Khanvaline Southalay, 14 and in ninth grade, writes on the blackboard: “Education is important.”

The youngest of eight children, Khanvaline is determined to be the first in her family to finish secondary school.

“Two of my sisters and my brother moved to Thailand. They told me work there was very hard, it was really not easy. They told me ‘focus on your education’,” Khanvaline says.

Poverty causes the majority of children in Lao to drop out of school. Only 69 per cent of children finish fifth grade; only 45 percent go on to secondary school.

As a World Vision sponsored child, Khanvaline receives school fees and uniforms. World Vision also built the road she takes to school and an irrigation system that’s increasing profits for local farming families. 

©2013 Mark Nonkes/World Vision