On 11 August 2023, H.E. Ambassador Morakot Sriswasdi, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Lao PDR, together with Team Thailand, officials and staffs of the Royal Thai Embassy in Vientiane as well as spouses organised the following ceremonies and activities in celebration of the auspicious occasion of the Birthday Anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother on 12 August 2023;

1. Alms Giving Ceremony

H.E. Ambassador together with Team Thailand, officials of the Royal Thai Embassy and spouses offered alms to Buddhist monks at the Residence of the Thai Ambassador. The alms giving ceremony was presided over by Most Venerable Maha Veth Masenai, the abbot of Si Saket Temple and Vice President of the Central Buddhist Fellowship Organisation of Lao PDR.

2. Ceremony to mark Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother’s Birthday

H.E. Ambassador led Team Thailand, officials of the Royal Thai Embassy and spouses in a ceremony to mark the Birthday Anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother at the Residence of the Thai Ambassador. The ceremony included prayer for Her Majesty’s good health, candle lighting, reading of the citation before Her Majesty’s portrait, and signing of well-wishes book to commemorate this auspicious occasion.

3. Activity of the Royal Thai Volunteers

H.E. Ambassador together with Team Thailand, officials of the Embassy and spouses presented a donation of 100,000 baht to the Women with Disabilities Association to support the repair of Association’s infrastructures, as an activity of the Royal Thai Volunteers. On this occasion, Mrs. Chanhpheng Sivila, Director of the Women with Disabilities Association expressed gratitude to the Royal Thai Embassy and Team Thailand for the support.

The Women with Disabilities Association was founded in 1990 as the Lao Women with Disabilities Group, and was established as the Women with Disabilities Association in 2002. The Association’s objective is to provide vocational training and life skills training for disabled women and to advocate for the rights, recognition and equal opportunity of disabled women in the Lao PDR. The Association also provides skills training such as needlework, sewing, handicraft from used paper, pottery, basic computer literacy, and wigs weaving. Pottery and handicraft products made by disabled women are sold at the Association to provide income for disabled women to be self-sustained. Furthermore, the Association is reaching out to and expanding skills training programmes for disabled women in Luang Prabang and Xekong Provinces.