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Our partnership with Lone Buffalo

We've been in partnership with Lone Buffalo, a charity supporting young people in Laos, since 2010. Find out more about what they do and how we're supporting them.

 

Who are Lone Buffalo?

Lone Buffalo is an amazing educational charity based in a small village in Laos, which develops young people through English tuition and youth development. It was originally founded by a former Explore tour leader, Manophet, who sadly passed away in 2010. As well as English tuition, Lone Buffalo also offers other benefits too, such as sport coaching, creative programmes such as film-making and a female development programme called 'Power Her Up'.

70% of the population of Laos lives on less than $2 per day. English is key to children and adults who want to further their work opportunities, yet education is not free in Laos. It is unaffordable for most families. Lone Buffalo provides FREE English classes to those children who are keen to learn – there is so much demand that there are 250 students on the waiting list, and the project survives through money from companies like Explore.

How does Explore support Lone Buffalo?

For the last 10 years, Explore has been proud to support Lone Buffalo. Over the years our donations have helped to give children the education they deserve, as well as access to activities like football coaching, skill development, film clubs and more! Over 300 students have learnt English, gone into further education, and expanded their possibilities thanks to Explore.

In 2022 we've gone even further and donated a further £1,500 which will go towards covering the tuition and technology kit to teach an entirely new class of 20 for a year, in addition to the class that we now sponsor annually. So effectively this year we’ve taken two classes of 20 kids each through a year of education that they would not otherwise have had access to. 

And our charity partnerships have far-reaching benefits, as we introduced another of our charity partners, the Derek Moore Foundation, to Lone Buffalo. The Foundation then funded the provision of several laptops as the basis for an IT lab. At Explore we aim to continue raising awareness of Lone Buffalo to help foster more contributions like this.

How can I get involved?

Booking any of our tours allows us to support charities including Lone Buffalo with regular donations. 

If you visit Laos, whether independently or on one our Laos tours, you can support Lone Buffalo through buying some of their 'From Bombs to Beans' coffee. The coffee co-operative was created as a platform for students to develop practical business skills, and the coffee can be bought in various places in Laos including Vientiane and Luang Prubang. Find out more on their website.

You can also make your own donation on the Lone Buffalo website. 
Visit the Lone Buffalo website

 
Find out more by watching our interview with Mark from Lone Buffalo:

 

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