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 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 the 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.

Some of the children come from extremely dysfunctional families - their mother might have died and the father has remarried a woman who does not want them, or they are unable to look after them due to extreme poverty etc.

Usually 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.

The Luang Prabang Government Orphanage School is one of these places.