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.

Japanese pop star Ai Kawashima visits UNICEF/AEON supported village

Popular Japanese singer-songwriter visited Longlao village and its primary school to take a look at a community water supply scheme and water and sanitation facilities, supported by Japanese company AEON through UNICEF.

To view the full photo captions, expand the gallery and click 'show info' in the top right corner.

Toilets for all

World Toilet Day, 2013 (c) UNICEF/2013

Weaving his way through a menagerie of chickens, ducks, dogs and pigs, past his family’s wooden stilt house and a dirt playground, fifth-grader Somkhan, 14, points at two small concrete outhouses at the side of the school grounds.

“This is where we go to the toilet now,” he says.

Two taps for hand washing stand close to the basic latrines, which serve the primary school in Don Xai village, a remote community of 50 households nestled in the dramatic landscape of mountainous Phongsaly province – one of the poorest in land-locked Lao PDR.