An albino woman adjusts her costume backstage as she and others wait for their fashion show during the Mr. & Miss Albinism East Africa contest in Nairobi, Kenya, 30 November 2018. Hudreds of abino men, women and children participated in the contest to raise awareness on discrimination and stigma against albinism in the region. (Photo by Dai Kurokawa/EPA/EFE)

A Lebanese man wears a mask to protect himself from the dust as a sandstorm blows over the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on September 8, 2015. An unseasonal sandstorm has hit the Middle East, reducing visibility and sending dozens to hospitals with breathing difficulties. (Photo by Ibrahim Chalhoub/AFP Photo)

38 year old Prabhat Sinha, from Assam, carries a load of coal weighing 60kg's, supported by a head-strap, as he ascends the staircase of a coal mine on April 16, 2011 near the village of Khliehriat, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

A young boy rests by empty USAID vegetable oil tins in the Dagahaley refugee camp which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement on July 19, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. The refugee camp at Dadaab, located close to the Kenyan border with Somalia, was originally designed in the early 1990s to accommodate 90,000 people but the UN estimates over 4 times as many reside there. The ongoing civil war in Somalia and the worst drought to affect the Horn of Africa in six decades has resulted in an estimated 12 million people whose lives are threatened. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

A guest dressed as a zombie attends the Middle East Film & Comic Con (MEFCC) in Gulf emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 11 April 2019. The event runs until 13 April 2019. (Photo by Ali Haider/EPA/EFE)

Edgar Sanchez stops on a walk with his dogs who cool off in a pool beside a fire hydrant sprayer, Saturday, June 22, 2024, in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York. (Photo by John Minchillo/AP Photo)

Groom Praem Pam Srichamnan and his bride Suriya Utai jump into a pond during a wedding ceremony ahead of Valentine's Day in Prachin Buri province, east of Bangkok February 13, 2014. Three Thai couples took part in the wedding ceremony arranged by a resort aimed to strengthen the relationships of the couples by doing fun activities. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be around 6.5 million in 2012. A third (33%) of the country's population lives below the international poverty line which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day.