Lao mother saves life of Vietnamese soldier

Kanchia is an elderly Lao woman, living in Phon village, Lamam district, southern province of Sekong, Laos. She doesn’t know her exact age, but she doesn’t forget the time she breastfed an exhausted Vietnamese volunteer soldier who was facing death from malaria some 40 years ago.

In Lao tradition, breastfeeding is also a woman’s bloodstream which is saved for her children, sharing the precious bloodstream with another person is forbidden, especially for a young lady in her teens like Kachia at that time.

After recovered the Vietnamese volunteer solider visited to thank her, he also called Kanchia his godmother. Kanchia hasn’t seen the soldier since then, maybe he died elsewhere in Laos, or has not been able to revisit Sekong due for any number of reasons. For Kanchia, she did this without thinking of rewards.

Saikhong Sayyasin, General Secretary of the Laos-Vietnam Friendship Association’s Central Committee, said that there are many beautiful stories between Vietnamese and Lao nationals, however the story of Kanchia, a young mother who overcame traditional barriers to save the life of a Vietnamese volunteer solider was a special story, maybe one that could only exist between two countries like Vietnam and Laos.