Philanthropy

One of my earliest dreams was to return to Laos, the country of my ancestors, to help improve the lives of the Lao people. 

As professional ballet dancer, I knew that with age, I would have to end my dancing career. I began to learn the craft of jewelry making in my free time which led to my starting my own jewelry label ‘Suzette, One of a Kind Jewelry’.

While visiting Myanmar and Laos in 2011, I was shocked by the standard of the jewelry and workshops.

I decided to use the knowledge of my own jewelry business, bringing tools and my experience from Germany, and since 2011 return consistently to the country of my ancestors to work in the jewelry trade and craft.

In 2012, providing quality tools and guiding the local craftsmen to preserve their jewelry culture, I created the label ‘Hoi Sang’ out of Luang Prabang, Laos. With mutual respect and trust we have been working on our jewelry-making technics, designs and quality as well as our business and management skills to supply shops in the international luxury hotels in the UNESCO Heritage city of Luang Prabang. 100% of the proceeds stay in Laos to pay for our continued jewelry work and local developments better care, and education for our families.

Keeping in line with my original goal and sustainability, in 2022, I gave this ‘Unique Lao Jewelry’ business entirely over to the ‘Hoi Sang ‘Unique Lao Jewelry’ team. You can find a choice of jewelry pieces from our Lao Collection ‘Give Back’ in my shop here.

I believe in helping to create ‘sustainable’ work and life. To do so one can only guide local individuals to want to make change for themselves and to help them to understand how this can be possible. This cannot be done by just going into a country and giving money or supplies for what we think is necessary. One needs to first find interested local people, listen to their needs, work together to guide them to achieve their goals and income to survive better to make these desired changes. This takes much dedication and trust on both sides that is only built up in time. Therefore it is essential to choose to work with responsible individuals and organisations.

While working with this jewelry project I have been fortunate to meet and also work together with responsible others dedicating their lives to helping others. Asked to negotiate the contract between the Luang Prabang Provincial Hospital, Government officials and German doctors from Interplast, Munich, (www.interplast-muenchen.de), the worldwide non profit organization of surgeons operating in the third world, I was ecstatic to have a first team of doctors from Interplast, Munich perform 50 medical operations, changing the lives of just as many families.

In 2016 I met the organisation based in Washington DC, Legacies of War. (www.legaciesofwar.org) with the mission is to raise awareness about the history of the bombing and advocate for the clearance of the unexploded bombs, providing space for healing the wounds of war to create greater hope for a future of peace.'

President Barak Obama was the first American President to visit Laos. This historic moment awoke the world to Laos’ history and plight. My knowledge of Laos broadened in 2017,  when I joined the team from Legacies of War to learn first-hand about the UXO sector in Laos. 

I am honoured to have been a board member, able to make a difference to help empower the Lao people to move ahead, lead safer lives and to contribute to a brighter future for their country. 

Inspired by the many people in Laos becoming more aware and reacting to the problem of garbage and plastic management. Together with Phetsamone Manola and Janet Su, we created a pilot teaching program about garbage management and recycling for classrooms in Laos. would be effective in a classroom setting in Laos.

In 2021, with supporting friends who believe that education is the key to social well being, I was able to start my own association, www.nextgenlaos.de

Our mission, is to support and promote the education and training of the NextGeneration in Laos, in order to give the people better prospects for the future. Our commitment should therefore contribute to sustainably improving the education and lives of young people in Laos.

Together with Phetsamone Manola (a trained nurse) and her team from the Friends of the Pha Tad Ke Association (from the Botanical Garden in Luang Prabang), we continued with the garbage understanding, adding health and hygiene to the program. We created a text book, ‘My Health & My Planet’ as well as a children’s workbook, ‘Me! My Health & My Planet’ that is now being distributed with at the ‘green and clean’ course we developed.