The NK Seeds story
It all starts in Nong Khiaw
In 2018, Mélissa set off traveling and ended up in Laos. In Nong Khiaw she met Sabou, a Lao teacher who was giving free English classes to the children of his village. Moved by his commitment, she slowly came to know the villagers’ daily lives and formed ties that would change the course of her trip. She fell for the place: for the people, for the country, for its culture. Mélissa decided to stay in Nong Khiaw and to work alongside Sabou. Together they came up with free English classes after school — the first foundations of NK Seeds.
Little by little, other Lao people joined the project and brought their own ideas to it. NK Seeds is built with them and for them, on their knowledge of the ground and the needs they voice. The work has grown that way, from education to health and then to clean water, always in the same spirit: listen, decide and act together. NK Seeds is first of all a human story and a community project, carried day to day by the people who keep it alive.
A name born here
NK
Nong Khiaw
SEEDS
S
Solidarity
E
Education
E
Environment
D
Development
S
Support
How far we have come
From the first seeds to the work of today
A meeting, a first class, then projects that grow with the needs we find on the ground.
Scroll through the story.
2018
The meeting
It all starts in Nong Khiaw
2019
The first school
A class opens its doors
2022
New momentum
The association grows
2024
Access to water
More and more paths open up
2025
Health
Caring beyond the classroom
Today
The story goes on
Education, health and access to water
From a first class to a commitment that now reaches into many areas of community life.
See how far we have come →Understanding our commitment
Why Laos?
Education, health and water at the heart of our commitment.
In Laos, access to education, drinking water and health care is still difficult for part of the population, especially in rural communities and the most isolated regions. Distance, economic hardship and the lack of infrastructure can severely limit the prospects of children, young people and their families.
According to the national LSIS III survey carried out in 2023, the primary completion rate reaches 88%, but the rate for lower secondary is only 56%. Staying in school beyond primary level therefore remains a real challenge for many young people.
The needs also concern access to water: in August 2026, UNICEF estimated that about 320,000 people in Laos were still without clean water and basic sanitation.
Access to care also remains difficult in rural and mountainous regions. Laos has about 3.6 doctors per 10,000 people and, in some isolated villages, reaching a health center can take several hours. On top of the distance comes the cost of transport, consultations, medicines or treatment, which can be a heavy burden for families on the lowest incomes.
It is from these realities, but above all from the needs and priorities expressed directly on the ground, that NK Seeds builds its projects alongside local communities.
Sources: Lao Statistics Bureau / UNICEF, LSIS III 2023; UNICEF, August 2026; World Health Organization (WHO).
The founder
Mélissa Lansmant
Born in Geneva in 1998 into a French-Swiss family, Mélissa Lansmant grew up and studied in Cluses, in Haute-Savoie. After earning her baccalauréat in literature in 2016, she set off at 18 with a backpack for a year in Australia, then traveled on through Southeast Asia. In 2018, her encounter with Laos, its people and its culture marked a turning point. She decided to settle there and founded NK Seeds, an association built with local communities to meet the needs they voice. Based in Laos for eight years now, Mélissa is the founder and program director of the association. She devotes herself fully to NK Seeds, running the projects, handling partner relations and growing the NGO. Day to day, she works alongside the local teams to design, carry out and follow the work in the field. She is also the author of “Construis-moi une école”, in which she tells the story of her path in Laos, and she shares her experience and her commitment through her writing and public talks.
Meet our team
The book
“Construis-moi une école”
In 2020, just as the association was taking off, Mélissa and her team were forced to return to France because of the global health crisis. That brought a two-year pause in the work of NK Seeds, although a team kept the English classes going in the village of Nong Khiaw through the lockdown. During that time, Mélissa decided to devote herself to writing, a passion she has had since childhood. She began a book about the story of NK Seeds and her own path in Laos.
In October 2018, a wanderer at heart, Mélissa decided to drop everything and set off on an adventure to the other side of the world. Alone with her backpack, carried along uncertain Asian roads, she landed in Laos and met Sabou, a young Lao man who had improvised a classroom in his living room where he taught English to the children of the village. Moved by Sabou’s commitment, Mélissa decided to set her travel plans aside and stay in Nong Khiaw, in northern Laos. Through smiles, through the eyes of children and through setbacks of every kind, Mélissa tells the story of the adventure that led her to create a free school run by staff and volunteers from all over the world. This travel journal is worth reading for its freshness and for the passion running through it. Mélissa Lansmant is an enterprising, deeply human young woman who turned a dream into reality. “I wrote to give an account of my adventure and to inspire anyone with a project of their own. I want to tell them that everything is possible.”
Discover the book