Although Laos has been a top ranked tourist destination in recent years, the country remains one of the world's poorest nations, and relies heavily on foreign aid and donations. People in Laos continue to struggle with severe poverty, and have extremely low life expectancy despite the country's booming tourism industry.

The faithful accompany the procession that tells the story of the last days of Jesus

Only today, 41 thousand pilgrims are expected at the Shrine of Aparecida. Statements of faith and love for Christ marked the Way of the Cross celebration at the National Shrine on Friday morning. Hundreds of faithful followers and pilgrims came to spend the most important week of the year in the House of Mother Aparecida and the day the Church remembers and relives the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ.

The feet of Hanar Baker, 9. Born on Feb 2 2004. She has a congenital malformation, or birth defect, of the feet. Congenital malformation is often caused by genetic/chromosomal abnormalities or the mother's exposure to harmful environmental factors while still pregnant.

On the 16th of March 1988, an Iraqi military strike hit the Kurdish town of Halabja with the greatest attack of chemical weapons ever used against a civilian population. The weapons used were a "cocktail" of mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin, tabun and VX. These chemicals drenched the skin and clothes of the targeted people, affected their respiratory tracts and eyes and contaminated their water and food.
But a generation later, the strike on Halabja is still killing people. An increasing number of children are dying each year of leukemia and lymphomas. The cancers are more frequent in children and teenagers in Halabja than elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan, and many people have aggressive tumors.
No chemotherapy or radiotherapy is available in this region. The attack has left thousands people wounded physiologically too. Some statues and monument in Halabja are based on the pictures taken on the day of the attack and often show dying people instead of triumphant men in a context of greatness.
The entire city carries this legacy on its shoulders.

Sisters Don Sochea and Houn Soklin show there prosthetics supplied by The Cambodian Trust. More than 40% of the villages in Cambodia have a problem with landmines, and sadly young children account for about half of all landmine victims.

A man reveals his prosthetic leg.

Local Lao children sell a wishing bird to set free for $1 USD to tourists at Pak Ou Cave in Luang Prabang, Laos. Although Laos has been a top ranked tourist destination in recent years, the country remains one of the world's poorest nations and relies on foreign aid and donations. Lao people struggle with severe poverty and their life expectancy is extremely low.