Centre Tours

The Lao Disabled Women’s Development Centre  is an exciting tourist destination in Vientiane. In a beautiful garden setting, it is situated on the banks of the Mekong just down the road from the Friendship Bridge and Buddha Park. Women with disabilities come from all over Laos to live and study here, gaining life skills and vocational training to empower them to set up an independent life. Visitors can learn about Lao culture, meet some inspiring women and support a fantastic cause. Funded almost entirely through donations, your tour will provide crucial support to help us continue enabling the disabled in Laos.
Bookings are required, please contact us by phone  (+856-20 5610 4259  , 021  820 489

E-mail: info@laodisabledwomen.com

We are open for visitors Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm and by appointment over the weekend.

Individuals and groups are welcome. The #14 bus departs regularly from the Morning Market (Talat Sao) bus station, stops at the Friendship Bridge, and then passes by the Centre, and goes onto the Buddha Park.

You can ask the driver to stop at the centre (“soon pee-kan” in Lao). At the Centre you are welcome to visit the showroom, browse our handmade products & products from other women from across Lao, and watch our presentation for free, however if you would like a tour the following prices below apply.

We are pleased to be able to offer the following tour packages:

Suksaa Tour (Basic Guided Tour) $ 5 per person – 35 minutes

‘Suksaa’ means ‘learn’ in Lao. Tour the Centre and gain a unique insight into life in Lao. Learn about the history of the Centre and see weaving, sewing and other handicraft demonstrations. Visitors will have an opportunity to meet some truly inspiring women and to see how these women live and study here at the Centre.

Surn Tour (Handicraft Class) 100,000LAK per person – 60 minutes

‘Surn’ is the Lao word for ‘sit, relax’, we say this when inviting people to join us in meals, our homes, workplaces and other activities. In addition to a guided tour of the Centre, this package includes a handicraft workshop in which you can sit with our paper product team to learn how they turn recycled newspapers into beautiful handicrafts and make your own to take home.

Happa Than Ahan Tieng (Lunch) 100,000LAK per person – 30 minutes

Taste a delicious traditional meal made fresh with vegetables from our garden. Feel free to relax in the garden and play pétanque before heading to your next destination. This option can be added to both tours but is subject to availability. Includes : Chicken laap, steamed vegetables, papaya salad, sticky rice, fruit and cold drinks (Vegetarian options and other dietary requests can be made upon inquiry)

Baci Ceremony 100,000 LAK per person – 20 minutes

Partake in a Baci ceremony, an ancient Lao custom involving the tying of holy cotton threads to bless the recipient and ensure good luck on your journey. This option can be added to tours.

Educational Workshops: Information for Schools and Organisations

Women with disabilities face many barriers within society that restrict their equal access to human rights: such as
education, health care and employment. Despite these barriers there are many remarkable women and initiatives
that are helping to breakdown stereotypes about people with disabilities. Students and organisations can come and
visit the Centre to learn more about how they can be more inclusive to people with disabilities, understand the conventions and Laos National Laws that protect people with disabilities and participate in disability awareness raising games as well as hear the individual stories of the women at the centre. By participating, visitors can help breakdown the barriers in society by learning how to focus on one’s ability rather than their disability. *Workshops can be tailored to meet the needs of the organisation.

Hienhou Numkan Workshop – (optional time)

‘Hienhou Numkan’ means learning together. In Laos, we say this when we want someone to get to know us better. This workshop will include focus group discussions with some of the staff working at the Centre, where you can understand about each person’s individual story, their challenges and how they are helping other people with disabilities. Then partake in a disability awareness raising game, followed by optional lunch or refreshments.

Includes: Essential tour + workshop facilitators + materials + game + lunch (optional)
Format: Introduction to the LDWDC and disability issues in Laos (30 minutes)
Stories from staff in focus group discussions (30 minutes). Group Activity on disability issues and game (1 hour)
Tour (30 minutes) Lunch (1 hour) (optional). Price: 250,000 kip (per person) with lunch

Disability Inclusion in the Workplace

Does your workplace or staff want to do more to support people with disabilities but lack the knowledge, skills or tools to do so? This one-day workshop will provide an understanding of disability, the language and etiquette and the benefits of inclusive workplaces. Through this workshop, management and staff will gain the knowledge and
understanding to develop achievable steps to effect real change in their workplace.

Includes: workshop + materials + refreshments (optional) Format: Optional half day, full day or short session on disability inclusion at your workplace. Price: Dependent on length of workshop – please call to discuss options

Half Day and Full Day Handicraft Workshops: Information for Visitors.

The Lao Disabled Women’s Development Centre offers possibilities for spending a great time while enjoying
beautiful and timeless handicraft. Make your special events memorable and organize your birthday at our Centre,
a school workshop or surprise your family and friends. The opportunities are endless with our many skilled women
who can offer various handicraft courses:

• Weaving workshop – we welcome complete novices, as well as experienced weavers.

• Paper handicraft – in addition to the 30-minute workshop you can elect to spend a half-day or full day at our Centre.

• Recycled banana and mulberry papermaking – Banana paper is an environmentally conscious paper. Banana trees produce fruit only once a year and are then cut down, leaving abundant waste or by-product. Recycling the fiber from this by-product, into paper, helps to prevent the eco-system’s rivers and forests from becoming polluted with waste.

• Or if there is a skill you would like to transfer to the women then please get in contact. Includes: One on One Training + refreshments + tour + materials + lunch (optional). Format: To be discussed based on handicraft chosen
Price: 250,000 kip (half day) weaving / 450,000 kip (full day) + 100,000 kip (lunch). 200,000 kip (half day) recycled paper making + 100,000 kip (lunch)

Cultural Activities – Laos Cooking Class, Bacci Ceremony, Laos Traditional Music & Dancing.

The Lao Disabled Women’s Centre not only offers visitors a chance to learn about Disability in Lao and the work that we do at the LDWDC, but we also offer visitors to join us in some traditional Lao Cultural Activities.

Hian Het a Hgam Suay Namkan – Make Tradition Food Together – LDWDC 06
We offer a lunch option (as above) which can be added on to any tour or activity, but if you want to learn how to make lunch in the traditional Lao way, this activity is for you. There are two options with this Activity:
• Basic Cooking Class – We will have ingredients ready for you at the Centre, so you can come and learn how to make some traditional Lao food with our Master Chef! You can make a variety of tasty dishes, from papaya salad, traditional larb, soups and of course sticky rice!

Market Visit and Cooking Class – When you arrive at the Centre, we will take you to the ‘Talat’, or Market, and together we will choose different ingredients, meet and talk with stall vendors and take in the sensory experience of buying food in the Talat the Lao way.

Our cooking classes can be modified for food allergies, preferences and anything else you may require. We want you to not only enjoy learning about Lao food, but to enjoy eating it as well, Saep Lai Lai!

Includes: Personal or Group Food Cooking Class (Market visit optional)

Format:     Times and dates of Cooking Classes & Market Visits must be pre-arranged

Price:       Lunch – 200,000 kip – Basic Cooking Class & Ingredients (1.5 Hours), H 9:00 AM – 12:30PM)

Diner – 350,000 kip – Cooking Class & Market Visit & Ingredients & Transport (4 Hours) – 13:00 – 17:30

Phon Dork Champa Lorlian – Wheelchair Champa Flower Dance – Laos Instruments – LDWDC07

The Wheelchair Champa Flower Dance is one of the LDWDC’s most loved activities. Our students combine traditional Laos costumes, traditional Laos dancing, and the Laos national Champa Flower, with the wheelchair for an amazing dance performance for our guests. You can choose to

have the Traditional Champa Wheelchair Dance activity as an added performance and to make this a truly Laos experience we use traditional Laos music played by our students.

In 2018 the Lao instrument the Khaen was added to UNESCO’s cultural heritage list. There is a saying in Laos that to be truly Laos is to live in a house on stilts, eat sticky rice and play the Khaen. We want to celebrate this by offering you a chance to see a performance with the Khaen, as well as other Lao instruments like the Lanet ek, being played by our students & staff. To get more involved you can choose to learn the instruments as well, although we cannot promise you will be a master after only one day!  This activity supports not only the work of the Women at the Centre, but promotes our students to have confidence to perform and to be active, and gives you a chance to enjoy some of the traditional culture of Laos!

Includes: Traditional Music Performance and Wheelchair Champa Flower Dance Performance

Format: Performance must be pre-arranged when booking tour. 30 minutes

Price:    200,000 kip – Music Performance only
200,000 kip – Wheelchair Champa Flower Dance

250,000 kip – Performance & Music Lesson

Visitors can always join our students after performance and try some new dance moves in a wheelchair or learn how to play a Laos instrument.

Laos Traditional Bacci Ceremony – LDWDC08

The Ancient Bacci Ceremony is an old Lao tradition, and even pre-dates Buddhist practice. We hold the Bacci ceremony in times of celebration, spirituality, readiness and mourning. We believe that the body is made of 32 spiritual organs, which can leave you when they want. The Bacci ceremony, and the tying of strings around each-others wrist’s calls these spirits back to you in times when you need them, such as marriage, birth, entering monkhood and other important times. Every time a string is tied around a wrist it is accompanied by moving the strings over the persons writs & saying ‘Haiy Kuad Nee, Dee Kuad Khao’ which means ‘bad luck out, good luck in. The Baci is an experience that will give you good luck and fortune in your future, and we are very happy to share this amazing experience and share with you this blessing from our students & staff at the Centre.

Includes: Traditional Lao Bacci Ceremony. (Please advise if you are vegan, as eggs are used in ceremony as a blessed food)

Format: Ceremony must be pre-arranged when booking. Takes around 1 hour.

Price:  400,000 kip per person

School Group Activities – LDWDC09

The Lao Disabled Women’s Development Centre is a place of learning, for everyone! We welcome School groups of all ages, and encourage teachers, parents or school staff to contact us directly to arrange a tour for your students. Our activities not only aim to be

enjoyable, but also informative about what it is like to live with different types of disability.
We will arrange a combination of our usual activities to suit your school group, but can include some of the following fun activities for school groups:

  • Wheelchair Race – Have a race in some wheelchairs in our garden, it’s a lot of fun, and also gives students a chance to see what life is like when you cannot use your legs.
  • Closed Eyes Balloon Game – In this game students are blindfolded and have balloons tied to their legs. The other person has to pop that person’s balloon before theirs is popped! This game is lots of fun, and shows students what it is like to live with a visual impairment.
  • Charades – The classic game of Charades, where one person gives another person an activity, animal or something else to act out for the other people in the group to guess what it is– without using any words! This game is fun and shows how important non-verbal communication is, especially for people with hearing impairments.

 

 

If you have any other activities
which you would like to suggest
please contact us and we will
arrange for materials and anything else which we may need to provide a fun and educational

About the Lao Disabled Women’s Development Centre

Established in 2002, the Lao Disabled Women’s Development Centre is a non-profit organisation, run by women with disabilities, for women with disabilities and their families in Laos. The Centre believes that everyone has unique
abilities because everyone is different. Its mission is to empower women to engage their abilities through providing
access to education and employment. Since 2002, the centre has delivered vocational training to more than 900 women with disabilities from around Laos. It provides training in sewing, weaving, handicrafts, computers, healthcare, social development, small business, English and Lao language. These are offered as part of a nine month comprehensive training program at the Centre and as short courses run in different locations throughout Laos. Each year up to 30 new students undertake the comprehensive training program and live at the Centre during this time.

For more information for student groups see below:

Student Tours English
Student Tours Lao  

2 thoughts on “Centre Tours

  1. Greetings,
    My husband and I will be in Vientiane from January 4-7 and would like to spend time learning from you ladies. If we could arrange a 1/2 day visit learning about your center, enjoying a music performance and lesson, seeing a wheelchair Champa dance, partaking in a Bacci ceremony and even being part of a weaving workshop, we would very much enjoy that. Please let me know if you have a date and time we could arrange to spend at the center and also the cost for our time together.

    With much appreciation,
    Maria

    1. Dear
      First of all, I apologize for the delay in responding to your email. I am Bounnaly, thanks you for your email and interes would like to come visit us

      Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you next time.

      Best regard

      Bounnaly

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