MSF first worked in Laos in 1989 at the outset of the repatriation of Thailand’s Laotian refugees to the country. In 1992, we began running a technical assistance programme where we provided training at hospitals for local staff and renovated hospitals to improve their quality and expand services. We responded to a cholera outbreak in 1994, and in 1998 began distributing rice to families who were relocated by the Laotian government.

We opened an HIV project in Savannakhet province in 2001, working until 2007, when we handed it over to the Ministry of Health.