Celebrations for the 9th anniversary of the Lao Friends Children’s Hospital in Luang Prabang
The Lao Friends Children’s Hospital in Luang Prabang opened in 2015 and is still unique in Laos. The anniversary was celebrated for the 9th time on 26.01.2024 and, as every year, we were there for the celebrations. We can clearly see the progress that the children’s hospital is making! The LFHC treated a record number of over 40,000 children in 2023.
Since the beginning, Moving Child has helped to set up various departments that work very effectively and help children every day. Particularly close to our hearts is the neonatal ward, which gives premature babies a chance to survive. Director Dr. Thomas Brune is a neonatologist with a great deal of experience and, together with his team, has improved the ward at all levels through his enormous commitment. His contract ends in March 2024 and he will return to Sweden. We very much hope that Dr. Thomas Brune will remain in contact as supervisor of the children’s hospital. We thank him from the bottom of our hearts for his incredibly dedicated work and wish him continued success and dedication to this very special work in neonatal pediatrics.
An equally important project that Moving Child has financed over the last four years is the specialist training of Laotian doctors to become pediatricians. The hospital is now a training center for all future Laotian paediatricians! It provides a high standard of knowledge, high standards of hygiene and the opportunity to learn from an international and experienced team in order to be able to run the children’s hospital independently from 2030. We are always very touched to see what can be achieved with a lot of commitment and dedication!
Founder and photographer Kenro Izu, who has since become a dear friend to us, tirelessly campaigns for donations with his board team from New York and negotiates with the government to extend the contracts. These are tough and nerve-wracking talks that are now bearing fruit. For the first time, the chances of a 10-year contract are good and there is no need to renegotiate every two to three years.
The LFHC places great emphasis on education and is very proud of its national collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Health, which aims to reduce malnutrition by training hospitals in the provinces on how to treat it more effectively. Another department that is working hard to reduce child mortality is the High Intensive Care Unit. Although it was only opened in 2022, it has been even more efficient since 2023. Many critically ill children have been saved who would not have survived without this ward and its equipment, such as pediatric ventilators.
The children’s hospital is increasingly becoming an institution that is indispensable. Children can be given a healthy future and the infant mortality rate, which is still very high, is falling! This is what our heart beats for and gives us the strength for our work.
