Peuan Mit Street Children Project

who we are

Peuan Mit meaning ‘close friend' works with street children, their families and communities in Vientiane Province. Our objectives are to reintegrate street children back into Lao society and to prevent others from becoming street children. Run by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, in cooperation with the NGO Friends-International, it is currently the only project working with street children in Lao PDR.  It works with up to 1,000 street and at risk children per month.

what we do

We provide medical care, non-formal education, vocational training, life skills education, psychological support, games, sports, dancing, and painting for participants up to 21 years of age. Their families are also supported by helping them to set up home-based businesses and access to health care. We provide parents with counseling and life skills training, so they are better prepared to accept their children back into the family.

ChildSafe is building a network to protect vulnerable children from all forms of abuse. Tourists have an essential role to play in protecting children. Please do not give money to children on the streets; it encourages them to stay on the streets and reinforces the idea in their family, that children are more useful on the streets than in school. To constructively support the children to get an education, please support the Peuan Mit projects and buy ChildSafe products.

Makphet Restaurant, our newly-opened vocational training restaurant, is run by the instructors and the students. We uphold the highest standards of hygiene, use only naturally-grown ingredients and no MSG. The décor, food and the music are purely Laotian and profits help fund our activities for street children. Once training is completed, Peuan Mit helps the students find other full time employment .

Our Noi-Noi Shop (meaning ‘small-small') sells ChildSafe® products made by parents in vulnerable communities of Vientiane. Parents receive regular payments for their products, and all profits help sustain the project and support basic welfare services for the families. These products are ChildSafe®, as the income generated enables families to pay for their children's education which helps prevent them returning to the streets. We will soon be implementing the regional ChildSafe program in Lao PDR

Our mechanic's workshop provides former street youths and youths at risk with training and income from repairing and maintaining bicycles, motorcycles and other light machinery. This gives them the employment and social skills they need to earn a living without having to return to the streets and resort to sex work, or other crimes.