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• Why is COPE in Laos?
• Where do we work?
• Who uses COPE's services?
• How do you make the devices?
• Who works for COPE?
• Money Matters
• How can I help?
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Money matters

If I donate how much money actually gets to the project?

This depends where you donate. If you come to the centre 100% of your donation is paid directly into the bank account used for patient costs and materials. This account is externally audited. If you make a payment by Paypal then 6.4% is taken up by their service charge. You can also pay by bank transfer and the costs of this vary depending on your bank.

In some cases, we can actually get more money than you donate! Yes, it's true. If you give money in England, through COPE partner POWER www.powerinternational.org , and you fill in a gift aid form (which we can provide) we can claim another 28% back from the government - as long as you can certify that you are a tax-payer in UK.

How much do you need?

Our needs vary over time. Donations are used to fill gaps in grants or as needed to ensure that the service is able to continuously operate. This is vital, the service has closed twice because we did not have this flexibility. If you would like to find out more please contact us, we would be happy to provide more detailed information about how your funds were used. PricewaterhouseCoopers carry out yearly audits and the focus of your donation is always for the benefit of the patients.

Here are some facts and figures, all in US dollars

• Amount spent per day for 9 years bombing Laos - $2,190,124
• Amount needed to run the service for one year at current levels - $500,000 per year
• Amount needed to build a new dormitory for patients to stay in - $40,000
• 1 Tricycle - $110
• Oven to heat polypropylene and make it workable - $8,000
• To treat a new born baby with club foot - $22
• To provide a mechanical prosthetic arm - $140
• To provide a below knee prosthesis - $ 50
• Provide crutches - $7
• Daily food allowance for a patient receiving COPE's services - $1.20

What about sustainability?

This is a difficult question! COPE has been working in Laos since 1997 and it takes a long time to train staff and develop infrastructure for quality services.

Now, we have started a system in which we ask all clients to pay a proportion of their costs, but only if they can afford to do so. In time, this will build to a reasonable proportion of the costs, but, for now, most of our clients are unable to contribute a significant amount.

The Lao government contributes about $80,000 every year and we hope to see this increase as the wealth of the country grows.

Other partner organisations, like POWER in UK, World Vision, and The Leprosy Mission International, pay an annual membership fee to COPE, and we should like to encourage more NGOs to join. We are also planning a visitors centre which will be the focus of our local fundraising. More details of that as it takes shape!

We are working hard to make sure that we have a group of staff in place to enable COPE to grow as a robust Lao organisation.