Founder's story

Shaped by hardship and driven by hard work, Boun Soukhaluck aspires to provide children who've faced adversity with the same opportunities he had.  

My name is Boun Soukhaluck. I grew up in a very poor family with seven brothers and sisters. I was born in 1990 in Navueng Village in Luang Prabang Province. Near the border with Vietnam, it’s an ancient, remote village deep in the tropical rainforest, two day’s walk from a paved road. 

Navueng has no health care, electricity, or other infrastructure. I lost my right eye in an accident when I was four years old. My family left Navueng in 2001 after two of my brothers and two of my sisters had died of diseases. We arrived Muang Long in Luangnamtha Province in June 2001. 

We were a homeless family for five years. We lived in a generous person’s bamboo hut in a rice field. My brother and I walked four kilometers through the rice fields to school every day. At that time my family survived by catching fish, collecting wild vegetables, and being hired to work in the fields. Eventually my family was able to save up money to build a house on the outskirts of one of six villages that make up Muang Long town. 

While I only had one eye with sight, I could work as hard as other students. But I suffered a lot at school because of my disability as nobody wanted to make friends with me. I took this to encourage myself to study harder and be more patient. I wanted to be a doctor to help people or be a soldier to contribute to protecting the nation, but I was rejected because of my blind eye.

I finished high school in 2007 receiving the highest five grades on the international examination, so I got a full-ride scholarship from Provincial Department of Education to study mathematics and science in Luang Prabang Teacher Training College for three years. Then I came back to be a teacher in Muang Long in 2010. 

In 2013, I received a two-year, full-ride scholarship from the Ministry of Education of Laos to study for a bachelor degree in mathematics at the National University of Laos where I also learnt English in my spare time. I returned home and continued teaching at school in Muang Long after I was awarded my bachelors in 2015. 

Then in 2018, I received a full-ride scholarship from the Government of Vietnam to study for a Masters of Mathematics at Thai Nguyen University of Education in Vietnam. When studying in Vietnam, I always made a lot of effort to be the top of the class. Just after studying Vietnamese for only one year, I won the Vietnamese Speech Competition in Vietnam that included 62 candidates representing college and universities from all over Vietnam. 

At university, I became a professor's assistant to help Lao students who struggled in speaking Vietnamese. Upon completion of my master's degree, the university extended an offer for a PhD scholarship. But I preferred to return home because I wanted to help children in my community. I realized how learning foreign languages can open doors to success for children in our community.

In 2023, through community help, formal recognition by the government, and Philip Marshall’s mentorship and financial help, I established the Phakhoun Foreign Languages Training Center to teach English. Philip is professor emeritus at Roger Williams University in the United States. 

My added focus has been to help children who cannot afford the tuition—or even basic supplies and clothes. 

Through our GoFundMe campaign, we now plan to expand support through scholarships to provide housing, meals, transport, healthcare, personal and administrative supervision of students, and outreach—in addition to more educational supplies and clothes.

My aspiration is to provide these children, who have endured hardship, with the same opportunities afforded to me. 

Boun Soukhaluck, Founder and Director, Phakhoun Foreign Languages Training Center