Access for all, no matter what

During Global Action Week on Education, UNICEF’s Carlos Vasquez talks about his experience in Udomxay province, Lao PDR:

Cheet, 9 (c) UNICEF/LAOS/2014/C.Vasquez

9 year old Cheet, from the Kmu ethnic group, was born with a severe skin disease which is affecting her everyday life and ability to have a childhood like her friends. The only medical treatment she received was when she was born but there was little the doctor could do to help and due to a lack of money her family is unable to get any further medical support for her.

With each passing day Cheet finds it more difficult to move her fingers and toes, and I could see the scars left by her medical condition on her delicate face.

Coping with tragedy: a legacy of war in Laos

Peter Kim, a young bomb survivor, at the COPE centre
© UNICEF/Laos 2012/Andy Brown

Peter Kim is a victim of the Vietnam War. But he’s not a Vietnamese or American veteran; he’s a 20-year-old Lao youth living in Vientiane. Four years ago he lost both his hands and eyesight to one of the millions of unexploded bombs that still litter the Laos countryside almost four decades after the war ended.