“Being at DDD helped me gain skills that put me on an equal footing with others who had a better foundation.”

In 2007, Chansamai Phommachan came from Xiang Khuang Province to Vientiane with four siblings, sleeping together in a small room. While waiting to register for classes, she heard about computer courses at Digital Divide Data. She applied for a three-month trainee program and went from complete novice to typing competition champion at DDD. After passing an exam, she became an operator with salary and tuition assistance, then a team leader for two years, helping make scans of old books into clear e-books.

After she left DDD, she’s had a wide-ranging career. She’s worked as a research assistant for Wildlife Conservation Society, studying human conflict with tigers. She created Vientiane Zero Plastic Week at Laos’s Ministry of Planning and Investment. She served as head of the M&E unit at Save the Children. She’s now a program manager at World Food Programme, managing an $8 million agriculture and nutrition project. At age 34, she could retire with the assets she's accumulated, including her own house and a car. "Being at DDD helped me gain skills that put me on an equal footing with others who had a better foundation than I did," she says. "I came from a family where my parents couldn't provide much support for me to access knowledge. Without DDD, I wouldn't have even known how to use a computer."