RESTORATION LAOS COLLECTION
IN COLLABORATION
Restoration Laos and ARTICLE22 are partnering to support demining teams throughout the country.
Laos is the most heavily bombed country on earth. There are still almost 80 million live cluster bombs, as well as larger bombs, littering the country from U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War. Restoration Laos funds a team of brave Lao explosives clearance experts who are restoring land, safety, and peace of mind, one village at a time. Every day they respond to emergency calls. Every day they destroy lethal bombs found by villagers. From April through October 2025, they destroyed nearly 600 bombs, including some big enough to destroy a whole village, before those bombs could kill women, men, and children. Your purchase of a Restore Ring, made from the remnants of war by skilled Lao artisans, will help the team continue their life-saving, life-restoring mission.
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Restoration Laos sponsors MAG demining teams in such villages. Each of these rings is handmade out of upcycled shrapnel and supports these teams.
IN COLLABORATION
The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) and ARTICLE22 are partnering to promote our shared beliefs that War is NOT the Answer and to Love Thy Neighbor (No Exceptions).
These bracelets are made from unexploded bombs dropped in Laos from 1963-1974. The scale of this bombing was equal to one planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years.
These bracelets carry messages inspired by FCNL’s Quaker peace witness. Every purchase advances the peace advocacy of FCNL, while supporting local Lao artisans, and the work of the Mines Advocacy Group. They make powerful gifts demonstrating a commitment to peace.
For over 80 years, FCNL has been lobbying Congress to make policy changes driven by the Quaker vision of a world without war, a world of justice, a world where everyone is valued, and a sustainable Earth. As the oldest religious lobby in the US Congress, FCNL is a leader in the movement to ban cluster bombs and landmines.
Each purchase from the ARTICLE22 x FCNL collaboration supports both FCNL and Mines Advisory group in this lifesaving work.
In 2024, Restoration Laos stepped in to support a MAG demining team which was facing the threat of being disbanded when government funding was cut. Now, the nonprofit also supports an emergency response team, which responds immediately to the most dangerous bombs found by ordinary Lao people in their homes and fields, villages and schools.
Why rice?
Demining supports the lives and livelihoods of people in Laos today. When land is deemed safe, farmers can grow crops to support their families and villages, sowing seeds for future generations.
Each purchase from the ARTICLE22 x Restoration Laos collaboration supports Mines Advisory Group in this lifesaving work, including Restoration Laos' MAG team along the Lao-Vietnam border, as well as the Lao artisans in Xieng Khouang who created these pieces.
MEET MICHAEL, FOUNDER OF RESTORATION LAOS
I first fell in love with Laos as a tourist, and only gradually came to see the shadows cast on that poor and beautiful country by the unexploded American bombs remaining from the Vietnam war. As I was laying the foundation for Restoration Laos, whose mission is to fund a bomb clearance team above and independent of government funding, I happened to visit the tiny hamlet of Ban Naphia. I admired the artisans as they made spoons, chopsticks, and more out of war scrap. In addition to running Restoration Laos, I am a priest of the Episcopal Church, and the cross I have worn ever since was made right there. For me, the coming together of those artisans, Article 22, and Restoration Laos is a wonderful convergence. I hope that these beautiful rings with their rice stalk symbol of restoration, crafted out of deadly remnants of war, will inspire you as well.
Our artisan partners are entrepreneurs and agents of change. Each piece helps MAG (Mines Advisory Group) clear some of the 80 million unexploded bombs from their land.