Focus Matters
Building connections through language, learning and shared experience.
Welcome to Focus Matters — a shared journey shaped by language, culture, communication and connection. Inspired by relationships formed during a 2025 visit to the School for the Deaf in Luang Prabang, this project brings together students, families, educators and community partners from Australia, Laos and France. Through learning, storytelling and exchange, we celebrate the many ways people connect with one another and the world around them. Across Lao, Lao Sign Language, English, Auslan and French, this journey is built not on a single common language, but on openness, respect and human connection.
Introduced by Julie Tait
Focus Matters begins with language, literacy and access.
Julie Tait is a Teacher of the Deaf, Auslan interpreter and Deafblind consultant supporting communication access and educational collaboration.
Julie has worked alongside Deaf children, families and educational communities across Australia for almost four decades. Her work within Focus Matters brings together communication, language pathways, educational collaboration and culturally respectful resources that support Deaf children and their families in Laos.
An avid traveller, Julie always tries to visit local Schools for the Deaf or Deaf Clubs wherever she travels. These visits have led to important lifelong relationships with people and institutions, fostering international exchange, shared learning and ongoing mutual support.
Support the Mission
Support for January 2027 is already taking many forms.
Australian schools and organisations are contributing educational technology and resources, including donated iPads for the Luang Prabang School for the Deaf, while PEMM is raising funds for the medical equipment required for the mission, particularly hearing aids.
Learn more / Support the Mission January 2027