Laos and the World Food Programme

A few weeks ago we were in in Luang Namtha in Northern Laos, a town strangely familiar with its dusty, empty main road, reminicent of say Vulcan, Alberta yet completely alien. The people here are wee in the sense that they are exactly that - 5 feet tall and 50 kilos for the men. Tucked away on a side street is a small World Food Programme (WFP) compound. A week later we were in Luang Prabang, a few hundred kilometres to the south and as we stepped out of our guest house there was a WFP truck as parked out front. A quick chat with the two WFP staff revealed that they are surveying the food security of Laos in the aftermath of the fifth typhoon to sweep in from Vietnam and the South China Sea in 7 weeks.

This country is poor with 80 percent of people living in rural areas in bamboo or wood huts and only a failed rice harvest away from severe hunger and the need for WFP food distribution. Two thirds of the population lives under the threat of food insecurity and half of children under 5 are malnurished. To cap it off a sizeable part of eastern Laos is unfarmable because of an estimated 30 million cluster bombs and other bits of unexploded ordinance (UXOs) strewn across the countryside courtesy of 2 millions tonnes of bombs dropped in 580,000 bombing raids by the US over a 9 year period during the Vietnam War. Shame Laos was 'neutral.'

Check out the WFP and the situation in Laos

http://www.wfp.org/countries/laos