Sombath Somphone was born into a farming family in Khammouane Province, Laos, the eldest of eight brothers and sisters. In the early &#;s he received a scholarship to study at the University of Hawaii where he received a BA in Education () and an MA in Agriculture ().
Returning to his home country after independence, Sombath&#;s initial work was on promoting low-cost methods of improving farm production and food security. Later, he pioneered the use of participatory rural appraisal techniques in Laos. In , he established the Participatory Development Training Center, PADETC, to provide training for youth, and local government officials in community-based development.
In June, , Sombath retired from his position as Director of PADETC, intending to spend more time with his familiy, meditating and writing.
More about Sombath can be found in abiography written when he received the Magsaysay Award, or at his page on Wikipedia.
There are also pages about Sombath on the PADETC and Saoban websites.
Finally, this website includes more about Sombath on the the Sombath&#;s Work, Letters to Sombath, and Inspiration Tree pages.
Harrowing tale of a disappeared
Silencing Of A Laotian Son – The Life, Work And Enforced Disappearance Of Sombath Somphone is a call for action against enforced disappearances. The book not only speaks of the life and work of abducted Lao activist Sombath Somphone in , but it is also a record of his kidnapping and struggles against injustice that Ng Shui Meng -- his Singaporean wife -- had experienced.
Silencing of a Laotian Son – The Life, Work And Enforced Disappearance Of Sombath Somphone by Ng Shui Meng International Network of Engaged Buddhists pp baht
Opening with the abduction in Chapter 1, the section Caught On Camera, details how his disappearance transpired. Sombath was stopped by the police at their post on Thadeua Road in the Lao capital Vientiane, he got out of his jeep and then walked into the post. No more than a minute later, a man in dark clothing was spotted arriving at the police post and driving Sombath's jeep away. Minutes later, a white truck arrives, Sombath is moved hurriedly into it, and is driven away.
We now know of this because junior officers at a local police station, probably naively, allowed Shui Meng to view the CCTV footage. We lear
Sombath Somphone: The activist who disappeared at a police checkpoint
Sombath Somphone, a prominent development worker in Laos, was on his way home from work when he disappeared at a police checkpoint on 15 December His wife, who's still working to find out what happened to him, believes it was a warning to others.
"It's been 10 years now and it's still very fresh in my mind," Shui Meng Ng tells the BBC.
The drive home that day was supposed to be routine. Her husband met her at the handicraft shop she owned in the capital Vientiane and as usual the couple drove home together in convoy - she was ahead, and he followed behind.
Ms Ng could see her husband behind her for most of the way, but lost him before she reached home.
"I thought he would be a few minutes behind me, but when he didn't come home, I assumed he had stopped for gas or stopped at a friend's house."
Ms Ng grew worried as the evening wore on. When there was no sign of him after three hours - she went out with her niece to try to find him.
They drove Vientiane's streets looking for his Jeep, and visited hospitals thinking h
Education, we are all told, is most effective when it is holistic, when it emphasizes critical thinking and integration of ideas and knowledge. We treat this as a new concept, but Sombath Somphone, a Laotian educator and environmentalist, has worked according to this concept for decades.
Sombath Somphone was born on February 17, , in a small farming community along the Mekong River in Laos. His father began as a farmer, but soon moved on. “After I was born, my dad realized that the amount of land that grandpa had opened up to divide up among his eight siblings would not be enough to sustain his family, so that’s when he became more of a merchant.” Because his father was often away, buying or selling wares, Sombath was the man of the house.
Sombath balanced schoolwork with overseeing the family, but he was still usually the best student in class. He eventually got sent to boarding schools, where he prospered. He was known as a very serious young man. “I don’t joke around. I guess it’s a complex—being from a poor family from a rural area who went to town.”
As the French withdrew from their former colony, American teachers became more common. On
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