One thing that everyone says you must do in Vientiane is to visit the COPE Center. I sent my family there when Nick and I had to work back in December, and they really liked it...
Nick and I went Saturday morning (we scootered by it, since the sign outside says "Center of Medical Rehabilitation" and has no mention of Cope).
The COPE Center is mainly funded through donations, and helps in the rehabilitation and physical therapy for people with disabilities. They have education materials on display, which demonstrates how they get the word of their program out to the more remote villages (there are 5 sites in Laos that help with fitting people with prosthetic and doing physical therapy, and if the patient is unable to pay- like a lot of the rural village people- COPE will cover all expenses and bring them to one of the 5 sites)
One of the main attractions at the COPE Center (it is really small) is the movie theater, which plays documentaries about the work of COPE and about cluster bombs.
One of the main focuses of the center is the presence of UXOs (Unexploded Ordnance) in Laos. Due to the Vietnam War (called the "Indochina War" over here, and that encompasses a long time before the US got involved), Laos is the most heavily bombed country (per capita) in the world. There are still many people who are killed or injured each year due to cluster bombs that are hidden, or while handling scrap metal. About half of these people are kids.
There is a movie about "The Convention of Cluster Munitions" at the center. It depicts representatives from countries around the world getting together to sign an agreement against the use of cluster bombs.
Most developed nations have signed. The US and China have not.
They had a "Leg Mountain" of prosthetic legs at the center.
At the front of the center they have a gift shop and a donation canister (made from a prosthetic leg). Nick and I both donated to the cause, and I ended up buying a shirt that says "Stop Cluster Bombs, Please".
(Please excuse the messy apartment behind me)
For more information about UXOs in Laos, here's one site: http://www.uxolao.org/
Or you can just google "cluster bombs"
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