Shortly before her fifth birthday, Buavone Muthavong fell terribly sick. Like so many other poor Laotians, her family was left with two options: wait for the ailment to ‘go away’ on its own or seek alternative ways of treating the illness since getting treatments from the hospital would be too costly. As her condition grew worse, Buavone’s parents brought her to a traditional healer in the next town. Unfortunately, that led to her experiencing medical complications which left her with mild muscle weakness in her legs.

Soon, schooling became too much for Buavone to handle considering the system wasn’t equipped with the proper facilities to accommodate her disability. This alone was enough to make her parents take her out of school. Without any academic qualifications to stand on, employment was unlikely to happen in her future and so, she had to rely on her parents for financial support.

Years later, motherhood prompted Buavone to reflect on how she could secure a better future for her daughter, one that is full of opportunities she never even dreamed of. Even though her husband was the breadwinner of the family, she wanted to make her own money and not be so financially dependent on him. Buavone decided to open a salon in front of her house. Given that the salon was located far away from the main road and lacked proper equipment, the business failed to take off.

Not only that but growing up poor affected Buavone’s relationship with money. She never had the privilege of learning proper money management skills, leading her to spend more on a business that was barely making any profits in the first place. Eventually, her savings dried up and Buavone declared bankruptcy a few years later.

Despite this, her husband never doubted her potential and even encouraged her to start a new business. After some self-reflection, she settled on opening a BBQ stall selling chicken skewers seeing as she had some experience helping her parents with their food business. In the first year of operation, Buavone was able to get by with small but steady sales.

As her business started to grow, Buavone felt confident enough to obtain a loan from a bank to open an additional stall. Once again, this led her into more trouble as she found herself overwhelmed with the added financial responsibility. To make matters worse, sales were inconsistent and profits were not tracked properly. The monthly loan repayment quickly became another burden on top of everything else.

In March 2022, Buavone was invited to participate in the R.I.S.E. programme. Initially, she was hesitant to attend, fearing that she would not be fit for such an intensive training but after a trainer explained the hundreds of lives positively impacted through R.I.S.E., it was the catalyst she needed to join the programme.

The training proved to be life-changing. Lessons from the Financial Management module taught Buavone the importance of having a small business budget in place, in addition to being introduced to the idea of providing delivery services for her food business via the Sales Strategy module. Apart from learning about skills needed to effectively operate a business, R.I.S.E also helped to cultivate a more positive mindset for Buavone through the Awareness and Change module. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and sadness, she is now able to reframe her thinking and emotional response when challenges arise.

Buavone implemented everything she learned from the R.I.S.E. programme into her business. In time, the hard work paid off as sales of her BBQ skewers increased even amid the COVID-19 lockdowns in Laos. It was during this period of uncertainty that she fully tapped into social media platforms like Facebook to attract new customers and build a loyal following. Buavone said the training was empowering and reinforced her ability to gain financial independence despite her disability. Today, she contributes to the family’s finances and is saving up for her daughter’s education.