The Laos Australia National Scholarship (LANS) is an Australian funded scholarship for underprivileged young men and women from rural Laos to study undergraduate degrees at local Universities.

Mr. Yeesome yee Yeerxaylee completed a Bachelor of Environmental Management with the support of the LANS Scholarships and is now a Manager of the Municipality Waste Management facility in Nga District, Oudomxay Province.

Yeesome explains that he chose to study Environmental Management because he grew up in a rural area and appreciated the beautiful nature of his surroundings as a kid. “But when I graduated from the secondary school, I saw that the environment was destroyed and problems appeared such as deforestation, waste and dirty water, which affected people’s livelihoods. Therefore, I decided to study at the Environmental Management Faculty. I wanted to know how to conduct good environmental management to solve environmental problems.”

“My family is poor, so they could not support me to higher education. This motivated me to apply for a LANS scholarship. Now, I am working as the president of Waste Management Service company, at Nga District, Oudomxay Province. There are many challenges in protecting environment such as city’s development and waste.”

Yeesome is hopeful that Lao people can learn to protect their environment and reduce waste. He says “We need to educate our people to love their environment and be willing to participate in conservation. In order to reduce the waste problem, Lao people must using the 8R method 1. Reduce waste 2. Reuse 3. Recycle 4. Recover 5. Reclaim 6. Repair 7. Rethink 8. Reject.”

Yeesome enjoys using his knowledge, skills and experience to manage the environment and waste using the knowledge gained from his University course and encourages young, Lao students to study hard and learn as much as possible during their University course.