Global Ministries, through its partnership with Church World Service and the coordination of Global Ministries social worker Xuyen Dangers, has helped create Community Development Centers in rural communities on the outskirts of Vientiane in Laos in recent years. One such center is Tammakhung. Tammakhung is a half way home for recovering drug abusers and a child center for village children in especially difficult circumstances and their families.

Tammakhung is grounded in two objectives. First, to equip children with skills, cultural and artistic values and traditions that will empower them to make wise choices about their futures. Programs include instruction in reading, drawing, painting, story telling, theater, and Lao traditional dance. An important curriculum component includes awareness training in the perils of drug abuse. During weekly garbage collection in the inner city, children see first hand the effects rendered by drug addiction. Such activities are designed to discourage the children from considering illicit drug use in their teenage years.

The second objective is to support former drug abusers. For eight months staff of the Donkoi team worked with the National Rehabilitation Center to learn new methods of teaching through vocational activity, psychological therapy, and social work. During this time workshops were conducted with doctors, nurses, and law enforcement officers on such subjects as an “introduction to social work” and “child rights.” Following the work with the National Rehabilitation Center, a comprehensive vocational therapy social work program was established to work directly with drug abusers at Tammakhung. While former drug users may be detoxified, few have skill sets or appropriate direction for becoming self-sufficient and contributing citizens. Staff and volunteers work with these individuals providing them programs in arts and crafts, story writing, dairy keeping, gardening, mushroom raising, and soymilk making. Added to these curricula is a monthly open house for parents and family counseling.

Youth volunteers provide much of the work being done. Most of these youth have completed high school and would like to go to the National University of Laos, but do not have the means to pay for more education. Volunteers may choose to continue their service to the center by continuing their education and building a solid foundation in Social Services. The current manager of Tammakhung was a dedicated volunteer art teacher and social worker assistant. She earned a diploma in Social Work at the Open University in HCMC, Vietnam, under a Church World Service/Global Ministries scholarship.

The success of the volunteer program prompted a health frontiers doctor to recommend that the services provided by Tammakhung be extended to a nearby hospital. This collaboration has provided third-year medical students the opportunity to work with young patients, their parents, and relatives in storytelling, reading, drawing, games, and health education. After only five months the number of medical student volunteers increased from one to ten. The center at Tammakhung has used the association with soon-to-be doctors as an opportunity to nurture them in how to work with children. In March of 2006, they participated in a workshop on Child Rights and also the After School Activity program. Following the workshop an unexpected but welcome discovery was made. A few of the volunteer medical students expressed interest in establishing a lasting commitment to working in social service. Such outcomes will only serve to further the work of Tammakhung in its service to children and families in difficult circumstances.