Vientiane: COPE

Bombies falling from an open shell casing at COPE visitor centre

Laos is the most bombed country in the world.  During the Vietnam war the USA, secretly, released thousands and thousands of bombs: approximately one B-52 bomb load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973.  During this period more ordnance was dropped on Laos than was dropped during the whole of the second world war.  The footage of continuous streams of bombs dropping out of aeroplanes over Lao villages is horrifying.

A large part of the ordnance dropped were cluster munitions, or bombies, the sort that break apart on impact to scatter tennis-ball sized explosive devices across the landscape.  Many bombies have lain dormant in the agricultural fields and jungle in Laos, and are found today, usually either by farmers or by children for whom they look like toys.

COPE is a provider of prosthetic, orthotic and rehabilitation services in Laos, primarily for the victims of unexploded ordnance (UXO) but also for people harmed in other ways (congenitally or by accidents) who would otherwise be unable to access protheses, orthotics and other support.

The exhibits in the COPE visitor centre are powerful and moving without being aggressively confronting - they're confronting enough just in themselves.  There are short videos of bomb-disposal technicians at work, first-person stories of recovering from the loss of limb(s), and displays of the home-made crutches and prosthetics as well as the more sophisticated replacement limbs COPE aims to supply people with.  As well as being a powerful documentary of the cost of war which is borne by those inadvertently affected by it (even those born many, many years after the conflict) it's a powerful reminder of how randomly lucky we in the west are.

The bathrooms are notable for the unusual washbasin supports - they're held up with prostheses also!
If you're looking for a present for that hard-to-buy-for person, you might be interested in buying them a leg! (it's also tax deductible in Australia).