DONG Dok residents in Laos might soon get an injection of marketing, technological and health-care know-how.

A group of 33 Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East students and five teachers are visiting the village community - located 35 minutes from the Laotian capital, Vientiane - as part of their social entrepreneurship project.
Jointly organised by the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) and ITE College East, the project consists of students from engineering, nursing, sports management and business courses who will combine their diverse skills to help the community.

The NYAA Gold Award applicants - who have to fulfil certain criteria, including community service and overseas trips - volunteered for the programme or were selected by teachers.

Based on their academic performance and leadership qualities, 33 were picked from 100 applicants to the programme.

They paid $340 each for the trip, with their school subsidising the rest.

In Dong Dok, they will conduct health-care workshops and teach English and marketing skills. They will also set up solar panels to generate electricity.

To raise funds for the approximately 1,000 underprivileged residents of Dong Dok, students solicited sponsors and held a bazaar at school.

They convinced clothing distributor Aryan to donate 60 cartons of clothes, shoes, bags and accessories. Sales at the bazaar held over four days in their school raised about $5,000 for their cause.

Students even saved on freight charges by transporting items they are taking to Dong Dok - such as milk tins, clothes, handicrafts, the solar panels, shoes and accessories - as part of their 25kg luggage allowance.

"We wanted as much money as possible to go to the community," said Mr Andrew Zeng Hua Sheng, 19, a second-year electrical engineering student.