THE FAMINE: 2007

Laos

Children play outside their tiny home in a Lao village.

The 2008 Famine will continue to fund projects in Laos - one of the world's poorest countries.

Home to 6 million people, it's one the world's few remaining communist states. People mainly live in rural villages, without access to basic facilities like clean water, healthcare, education and electricity.

Most families try to make a living from farming, but struggle to feed their kids. The land is rugged and the soil is littered with landmines and unexploded bombs left over from the war in neighbouring Vietnam.

Forty percent of all Lao kids under five are malnourished and half the population doesn't have access to safe drinking water. One in three people in Laos lives on less than $2.50 a day and education levels are among the lowest in East Asia. Only five percent of Lao children complete high school.

Famine funds are helping World Vision:

• Give children their rights by providing loans for income-generating opportunities like small-scale businesses and animal breeding programs so children can go to school (and not work in the fields) and have an improved standard of living
• Teach communities new farming methods to make the land more productive and viable in the long term
• Introduce modern tools and develop new varieties of seeds and animal breeding techniques that will mean families can have a balanced diet all year round
• Build dams to channel clean water through canals and pumps for irrigation, and dig wells to provide access to clean drinking water
• Teach families how to prepare nutritious and hygienic foods so that children are protected from disease.

The 40 Hour Famine is a community education and fundraising initiative of World Vision Australia.