The mission to Laos is the largest medical and dental mission sent overseas by the WHA program. The mission involved a significant degree of transferring of medical equipment, and teaching and training of healthcare professionals.

Laos is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia and remaining so despite the recent economic boom in the region. The country’s per capita income in 2007 was estimated to be $710 (est. by the U.S. State Department). This is about $2 a day. The scale of poverty and the degree of medical need were confirmed by our five-person fact-finding team sent to Laos in November of 2007.

Our goals for the Laos mission are to:

1.	provide much-needed medical and dental care to the villages around Vientiane and the villages and orphanage in Luang Prabang
2.	teach medical students at Laos’s only medical school located in Vientiane
3.	exchange surgical techniques and knowledge among Lao surgeons and our surgical specialists
4.	provide Laos with an operative pulmonology program

The Laos mission was from November 1 to November 15, 2008 and included 31 members. This was truly an international mission with dental team members joining the mission from Vietnam as well as Laos health professionals from the Laos' Ministry of Health.