Laos….for many people it is the "Land of a Million Elephants", "a small piece of paradise on earth".

The many visitors now flocking to Laos leave the country with fond impressions and memories of beautiful vistas, friendly locals, great food, wonderful temples and a totally relaxed lifestyle.

But there is another side of life to this beautiful country…

Laos is one of the poorest nations on earth. Only a small percentage of Lao live in towns and cities - the majority of the population survives by farming at subsistence levels, often having to travel many kilometres each day just to collect water.

During the 1960’s/70’s war in south-east Asia, areas of Laos were the most heavily bombed places on earth - the American military dropped 250 thousand tons of bombs on Laos during the war. Not only were bombs directed at specific targets, but planes returning from air-raids on other countries jettisoned their surplus bombs over Laos before landing. Every year there are hundreds of Lao people injured and killed by the unexploded cluster bombs that still lie around the countryside.

Children are particularly vulnerable in the harsh, dangerous living conditions endured by so many Lao, and many are denied the most basic essentials. There are many children who have lost both parents (or their whole family) to disease or accidents. Approximately 5000 people a year are killed by cluster bombs - starvation causes desperate parents to clear land or forage in areas where they know there are bombs because they are trying to find food.

Recently the northern part of Laos has been designated a major drought area and crops are failing badly. Good rain hasn't fallen for ages. Another cause of starvation.

Another cause of death is diseases that sweep through villages and people have no resistance and cannot fight them. Due to malnutrition and starvation whole villages can be devasted and the remaining children will find their way into the orphanages and ethnic high schools.

When a child is orphaned or cannot be cared-for by their immediate family, the child’s extended family or village tries to look after them. But as subsistence farmers, where every day is a fine line between life and death, the burden of feeding an extra child where there are no extra adults to help with planting rice or hunting becomes too much. For many children the only hope of survival is to find their way to an orphanage.

Even for children who do have families, access to anything more than the most basic education requires them to leave home and go to a government high school.

All children are allowed to finish high school, no matter what their age, if they can manage to get to a school. Most children walk down from the mountains, sometimes taking them days to get to the school. Their families hope that when they finish they will get jobs in the government such as the public service, police or army and have an opportunity to go on to Teacher Training College and come back and set up schools in the villages or at least be able to send a little money home to help out.

The Luang Prabang Government Orphanages and Ethnic High Schools are places where children receive the care and education they require to have a chance of furthering their own lives and the lives of the villages they come from.