From Sweden to Savannakhet: SNV congratulates intern Liyen Chen on an award-winning thesis!

Liyen Chin, who did an internship with SNV’s WASH team in Laos last year, has been awarded the Hydén Award for the best development thesis from Lund University in Sweden. Liyen did her master’s research on Menstrual Hygiene Management in Savannakhet, and her findings were an invaluable contribution to SNV’s understanding of this aspect of sustainable sanitation programs.

The Hydén Award was founded in 2002 to encourage research on development-related issues and is awarded to an excellent thesis each year that demonstrates independent analytical skills and ability to make use of theory in empirical analysis. The originality, urgency, and difficulty of the theme and research undertaken are also taken into account.

As a Master’s candidate at Sweden’s Lund University, Liyen spent five months with SNV in Laos working with the WASH team to hold workshops on menstrual hygiene management and learn more about current knowledge and practices in Laos. Her findings emphasised the fact that menstruation is still a taboo subject in Laos, and thus, many women do not have access to knowledge on menstrual hygiene management.

SNV would like to sincerely congratulate Liyen on her award and thank her once again for the excellent work she did while in Laos.