As the home of the first Give Children A Choice Preschool in Laos, Aine Savanh will always be special to us.

We visited Aine Savanh many times before building our preschool; we assisted the village by building a cistern, laying a water line and installing electricity in a small group of homes and the village primary school. As we established friendships and earned trust with the people of the village, we came to better understand their needs.

The Aine Savanh preschool was completed in early March 2003, and it quickly became the model for future preschools.

Give Children A Choice founder Dori Shimoda first visited Aine Savanh in early 2000, interested in meeting residents of smaller Laotian villages. He discovered that the village's needs were very basic, generally related to survival and sustainability.

Overcome with the beauty of the children and the many limits they face in any effort to reach adulthood with an opportunity for advancement, he learned quickly that the solutions required fewer dollars and more of a combination of a big heart, vision and a willingness to invest time with the townspeople and decision makers.

In late 2001 and early 2002, we assisted the villagers by building a cistern and laying a water line so little girls no longer had to walk so far to carry water back to their homes. We also assisted them by installing electricity in a group of approximately 20 homes and in the village primary school. During these early projects, we started to figure out how to make change happen.

These early visits to Aine Savanh and the passion and commitment to help the children of this village and many others were the driving forces that led us to form Give Children A Choice as a 501c3 nonprofit corporation.

While acquainting ourselves with the villagers and their children, we learned about a pervasive attendance problem at school, which thwarted kids' desire to learn and their ability to grow academically. Many of the children, mostly girls, were not able to attend school due to their responsibility for the care of their younger siblings.

Dori sketched the initial design for the first preschool, and made contact with a construction company in late 2002. The school opened in March 2003 and is now thriving.

We have revisited Aine Savanh many times since the construction of their preschool. In 2004 we celebrated the building's enhancement. It was originally an open structure and is now enclosed, complete with tile roof.

We could not be more hopeful for the children of Aine Savanh and appreciative of the donors who've made this and subsequent Give Children A Choice preschools come to life.