Vientiane – COPE: Helping Victims of the Secret War

Vientiane is literally across the river from Thailand, and I don’t say that as a brief descriptor to understand the general geography of the place, cross the Mekong river from from Nong Khai to Vientiane and you are in a whole different country, Laos.

Crossing the bridge from Thailand by rail was awesome, and although separated by a river, the two countries are worlds apart. We landed in Vientiane which is the capital city of Laos, a landlocked and often forgotten about country bordering Thailand, Myanmar, China, Cambodia and Vietnam.

We didn’t have many expectations rolling into Vientiane as most people generally leave as soon as they get there, but we figured we would stay a couple days to see if we could root out some gems in the capital city.

On our first day out and about, we came across exactly what we were looking for, and based on a recommendation from our pals Claire and Dale we went to COPE a local charity specializing in helping people who have lost limbs from the massive magnitude of Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) in Laos.

THE SECRET WAR

I will do my best to give a little history lesson, but if you want to get some great info on the subject hit up google. Anyways, during the Vietnam/Indochina conflict of the 60′s and 70′s Laos was situated in a very strategic position as it shared a border along Vietnam running from North to South. As a result, the North Vietnamese forces weaved in and out of the country to attack the south on a series of jungle logistic roads known as the Ho Chi Minh trail. At the same time, the Laos was flirting with the idea of becoming a Communist state similar to their neighbours in North Vietnam and getting rid of the traditional monarchy.

For these two reasons, Laos was a huge threat on the American radar, but the Yankees did not, or could not, declare war on Laos. Instead, they got permission to do “armed reconnaissance missions” over the country, the end result: more than two million tonnes of bombs being dropped on the country over 9 years to make it the most bombed country on the planet (more than all the bombs dropped during WWII), the Americans conducted bombing missions every 8 minutes, every day for duration of the secret war.

A child's drawing of him witnessing his auntie getting killed by a bomb

The Story to go with the Picture

An after effect of the secret war was the tonnes of bombs that never exploded upon impact, including cluster munitions which are miniature bombs cased within a large shell that spread out over massive areas and are prone to hit the ground and remain unexploded. Its been over 40 years since the bombing began and people are still getting maimed, injured and killed by the weapons that were used in the conflict. The worst part is – most of the victims are children.

Cluster Munition Display at COPE Center - Each little bomb has a kill radius of 30 Meters

COPE

So we finally found COPE after an unexpected and overly expensive tuk took ride and were given a brief welcome by the employees and encouraged to watch a documentary regarding the previously mentioned subject. The one we watched, Bomb Harvest, deals with the epidemic in Laos of people collecting UXO to sell for scrap, and since it is one of the poorest countries on the planet, the job is very appealing to the population, kids and adults alike.

COPE was started to help people in Laos recover from dehabilitating injuries sustained from UXO, vehicle accidents, disease and a magnitude of other reasons. One of the primary purposes is to create prosthetic limbs for people who have lost them in any number of unfortunate situations. After doing a run through and finding some scary facts about UXO in Laos, we talked to an employee named Nam and asked him if we could discuss some of the issues on camera for our episode. Turns out he was the PR/Media manager and was more than happy to give us a personal tour of the place and explain some of the gruesome realities faced by the people on a day to day basis.

After spending nearly an hour and a half talking with him, Jackie and I both realized that we had learned so much about a subject that is seemingly swept under the carpet in the western world. I would be willing to bet money that the majority of people reading this had no idea this was going on back in the day or how it is still affecting the country. It was definitely moving to see how passionate the people are about trying to remedy the situation, not that it is surprising as almost every person we talked directly knew someone affected by UXO. Although a slightly heavy day, it remains one of the best stops on the trip so far and definitely gave Jackie and I a new perspective on a country that we knew very little about. We also wanted to do what we could to raise the awareness of UXO in Laos and how we could potentially better the situation for the people of Laos.

We donated some money to the cause and I think you should too. COPE is legit, not a fly by night charity that is lining the pockets of some aristocrat in upper society. They are passionate locals trying to make their country a safer place to live for generations to come and helping people who have been directly affected by unfortunate UXO incidents by giving them a new lease on life. I know this sounds like one of those late night shows begging for people to give money to poor kids in some forgotten corner of the earth, but it is pretty sad to see generations of people who weren’t even a glint in their parents eyes when the bombs were dropped still being affected by the events of the 60′s and 70′s.

For $75 bucks you can buy someone a LEG! Seriously, there is someone in the hills in Laos walking around on a home made peg leg ala Captain Hook and he could have a brand new prosthetic that could help him rebuild his life and support his family. Man, I look back and think of some of the benders I have been on and with the amount I spent I could bought 4 or 5 legs, and I am sure you could have too!

Home made prosthetic limbs replaced by actual prosthetics created at COPE

Anyways, I know this is a migration away from what we usually do, but check COPE out and donate via PayPal if you can, it’s an amazing cause run by great people and if you are ever in the area you have to check it out.

Here is their website - COPE Chairity

Thanks again to Nam for helping us get some great narration video on our tour and helping educate us to a cause that we will be associated to for a long time to come.