By: Warunee Khaophatthanawan, National University of Laos, Faculty of Law and Political Science Clinical Legal Education Intern from Khon Kaen University

My name is Warunee Khaophatthanawan. I am a third year law student at Khon Kaen University (KKU) in Thailand. I was awarded a scholarship from the University to go to Laos for an internship program in order to fulfill my degree requirements and to learn about another culture.

The internship was conducted with the Clinical Legal Education Program in Lao PDR. We gained a lot of experience by doing community teaching at secondary schools and the Somsanga Drug Dependent Treatment Center.

The internship was a trial period to prepare me for work in various fields that I may enter in the future. I learned about the organizations that I worked with and gained legal knowledge. Education is a useful tool since it allows those who don’t know the law to gain legal skills for everyday life. For example, they will learn what is wrong or illegal, for the benefit of themselves and the nation. Before we went out to share knowledge, everybody in our group had to first plan and share ideas to get the system working. We studied the Lao language as well.

In community teaching, all the members must first meet and learn the material very carefully. They must share the work with the members and conduct rehearsals before going to the community. When we did community teaching, all the members helped one another in every aspect because we were a team. When it was completed, we exchanged opinions about the work to find solutions and improvements for next time.