Laos

Community-based rehabilitation
In 2006, in a goal of supporting people with disabilities and their families, Handicap International implemented a community-based rehabilitation centre in three districts of the Savannakhet Province. 2008 marked a new approach with planned visits ito rural areas, gathering the inhabitants of several villages to offer them healthcare advice, consultations with a medical team – doctors and nurses - and orthopaedic and physiotherapist technicians. In 2010, the transition process to hand this project over to our local partners will begin.

Mother and child health
Few Laotian women – a mere 7% - give birth in a health centre. This proportion is even lower in districts where Handicap International conducts its projects. This project aims to respond to the high mortailty rates for mother and child in rural areas, where diet is poor, there is little clean drinking water and children are particularly vulnerable to illnesses leading to a disability.

Inclusion in employment for people with disabilities
Handicap International works with the LDPA (Lao Disabled People Association) to create a more inclusive society. Handicap International has developed several disability rights training modules with the LDPA, which has also driven a media campaign to raise public awareness to the potential of disabled people and promote access to healthcare, education and employment.

Road safety
An ongoing project aimed at reducing disabilities related to the increase of traffic on Laos roads. A curriculum of road safety lessons was developed and is starting to be used in a first group of schools in Vientiane. We also started an awareness programme for rural communities living along Road 9, which links Thailand to Vietnam and crosses the Savannakhet Province, an exceptionally lethal trunk road. In 2009, Handicap International conducted a study to incorporate the themes of mobility and accessibility for disabled people into the issue of road safety.

Reducing the threat from unexploded ordnance
Laos still suffers from the impact of 80 million cluster bombs, which were spread over its territory during the Vietnam War. Handicap International’s objective is to reduce the threat of UXO through bomb clearance actions and mine risk education. These projects are developed in the three most affected districts of the Savannakhet Province: Nong, Villabuly and Xepon.

In the area of mine risk education, 2008 saw the development and use of a module specially developed for parents. Volunteers work with the families involved in the collection of metal – which most often comes from unexploded ordnance (UXO) – to lower and change risk behaviours.

UXO awareness officers now have a new tool: a film containing the personal accounts of children who have survived an accident caused by a cluster bomb or other type of unexploded ordnance. A home gardening project was also launched among sixty families to improve their food security and thereby reduce their dependence on the dangerous activity of collecting metal (particularly from UXOs).

In 2009, 296,790 square metres of land was cleared, and 1,104 explosive remnants of war (cluster munitions, bombs, rockets etc) were destroyed. Another 841 pieces of ERW were destroyed during roving operations.