Cabot Orton: Eyes Open

Vietnam is staggering. We're immediately confronted by a landscape of astonishing beauty, a history freighted with strife and suffering and preternatural hardship, a people who sublimely embody grace and perseverance. Listen to me: yank yourself out of comfort and relative ease and see this place, meet these people, see where they've been and where they are going. In doing so you will give yourself a tremendous gift that will endure, never to be forgotten.

My hosts are James and Martha Hathaway, good friends and tireless champions of a cause that's mercifully begun to receive global attention. Every amputation, smashed limb, scarred face, mangled body is a signpost suggesting weapons that were, mournfully, built to last. James and Martha are fortunate to have a wonderful, talented staff that lives daily with this ruinous legacy, tending to victims of the mines and bombs that continue to shatter families and destroy lives.

There's so much more to Vietnam than tragedy- that's the lovely surprise. Midnight street vendors in Saigon, water buffalo grazing on rice paddies pockmarked by bomb craters, hundreds of delighted children tearing around a schoolyard, verdant green hills that humble a Vermonter, smiles upon smiles from the warmest, most gracious people you will ever have the fortune to come across. Bob, Sarah and I have been here three days and can't remember arriving; the level of constant emotional and sensory impact we're experiencing tends to capture awareness, trapping sense of time like a bug in amber. I've never felt more present and more alive.

If you're out there reading this, please know there will be more and better in days to come.

Bob Allen: I Cried Today for the First Time

I have been in Vietnam for five days and felt like crying every day. The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City heightened my sense of guilt and shame for a 30 year-old war. The pictures of death and destruction brought back dormant emotions I had long since thought I had put behind me. I refused to serve in the war, but have always felt that I could have done more to end the war sooner. Lives could have been saved. The graphic pictures of lost and damaged lives made me very sad, but I did not cry.

Traveling through the countryside from Hue to Dong Ha I saw bomb craters everywhere. Just outside Dong Ha we passed an area that had been completely denuded by Agent Orange. 30 years later there are still very few trees. Fertile farm land had been turned into a desert. In my lifetime this area will see little change.

This morning we toured the Vinh Moc tunnels were more than 200 people lived for more than 4 years as much as 75 feet below ground. The sign at the entrance to the museum read "To be or not to be" The choice was to remain alive and live below ground, or risk near certain death by continuing to live above ground in a spectacularly beautiful oceanside farming community. They choose life and no casualites were ever reported. 17 children were born there and lived the first years of their lives in darkness and fear. Still there were no tears.

This afternoon we visited a school founded by Clear Path in Dong Ha. The school serves about 375 students, in two shifts. 24 teachers work to help provide the opportunity for a better life. As we entered the gates we were literally surrounded by beautiful, smiling, cheerful faces. The joy I felt was indescribable. The welcome could not have been more heatfelt and came at just the right time. The children must know about the American war and have heard stories from parents and grand parents. They welcomed our group of Americans with open arms. There was no fear, no anger. I felt only love and joy and then I cried.

I began this trip with real anxiety about the how I would react to what I knew I would see. I expected tears of sadness and was given the gift of tears of joy. It has for me revived my belief that people and organizations like Clear Path can make a real difference in people's lives and that one day we may truly learn to live in peace.

CPI Group Trip: The First Days are the Hottest Days

The group on our trip through the jungle on day 3.

Hello from Dong Ha Town, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam! This region is one of the most heavily bombed areas in the history of the world. More bombs were dropped here than in World Wars I and II combined, which is why the Clear Path International office is here. We have served over 2500 peacetime landmine and bomb accident survivors in this and surrounding provinces since our founding in 2000.

Our group (Cabot Orton, Sarah Judd, Bob Allen, Martha and me) is having an incredible adventure here in Vietnam. The first days were a real adjustment from Vermont as Saigon was REALLY hot for us pale, New England travelers. While in Saigon we traveled the city on motos (scooters), the prefered source of travel for CPI while in country... cheap, fast, and most importantly, fun.

A visit to the War Remnants Museum gave our trip context. The display of war victims is truly heart wrenching... there is one, small section of the museum which addresses ongoing UXO (unexploded ordnance) accidents... at least we could feel we were making a difference at least in this area.

After the museum, with heavy hearts, we visited Reunification Palace... you may have seen images of tanks crashing the gates here to end the war in 1975. The place has been preserved pretty much in the same state it was then... much of the place resembles a James Bond set... complete with a gambling room, small movie theater, a party area on the roof and a helicopter pad in the back...

We then flew to Hue, the former imperial capital of Vietnam... the weather was much cooler with sporadic, heavy rains. Here, again, we rented motos for a trip deep into the jungle and then a hike over some rough trails to a beautiful waterfall where I could not resist the urge to get under the massive amounts of water coming down from the mountains. The moto trip was about an hour and a half longer than we anticipated, so to save ourselves from having to travel at night through the jungle rain on our scooters, we rented a van and our moto drivers made the trip back on their own. I am sure they were just as thrilled as we were... they got to get rid of their much heavier American passengers and zip home.

Today the group, as I mentioned above, arrived here in Dong Ha. We have already met with the Foreign Relations Dept here and had a wonderful dnner of local food and insane amounts of beer (for some of us... ). I will write more in the coming days.


Please do see more photos of our trip here.

Clear Path Group Arrives in Ho Chi Minh City

Greetings from Ho Chi Minh City! Our group arrived safely this morning at around 11:30am local time.... our trajectory Vermont> Albany,NY>Newark, NJ> Seattle, WA> Taipei> Ho Chi MInh City... all tolled over 30 HOURS!

Chi from the Vietnam office met us at the airport and we spent the day primarily being tourists in this increasingly busy city.

Below is the whole group engaging in our first toast of the trip, which tradition dictates must be made on the rooftop of the Rex Hotel.



Form left to right: James Hathaway, Martha Hathaway, Sarah Judd, Bob Allen, Cabot Orton, and Tran Hong Chi.
We'll be posting our photos to the CPI flicker page here.

Release: Eastern Burma is now one of the world�s worst health disasters

Clear Path International supports a group of medical technicians from the Karen Handicap Welfare Association who go with members of the Back Pack Health Workers Team to measure, deliver and fit prostheses for internally displaced Karen landmine accident survivors inside Myanmar. This is the backpackers' dire assessment of the general health conditions in which their people live.

Eastern Burma is now one of the world�s worst health disasters

The report entitled �Chronic Emergency,� released by the Backpack Health Worker Team (BPHWT), is the result of systematic surveys in communities of internally displaced persons living in the eastern conflict zones of Burma and provides the first glimpse of their health status.

The report shows that decades of civil war have decimated the health of these populations, with standard health indicators ranking this area amongst the worst in the world. The report also demonstrates that human rights abuses such as forced relocation, violence, forced labor, and the destruction of food and crops are common and serve as major drivers of the health crisis.

Launching the report, Thai Senator Jon Ungphakorn, a member of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, blamed the Burmese regime for the ongoing health crisis in eastern Burma.

�With abysmal statistics like these, it is no wonder the regime tries so hard to hide them from the world. The Burmese military junta is the source of the problem, not only through its abuses and neglect of the welfare of the people, but also through increasing restrictions on humanitarian aid efforts, particularly to ethnic minorities living in rural Burma.�

The BPHWT are a multi-ethnic group of mobile medical teams serving displaced people in Eastern Burma. Dr Cynthia Maung, a founding member of the BPHWT, recipient of the Magsaysay Award and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee in 2005, says eastern Burma is a humanitarian disaster zone.

�One out of twelve women may lose their life giving birth. Displaced people are 2.4 times more likely to have a child die than people not displaced. Their children, if they do survive, are more likely to be malnourished. Most of these deaths and illnesses are preventable.�

According to statistics from international agencies such as UNICEF, Burma�s national figures for infant and child mortality already rank amongst the worst in Southeast Asia. Adds Dr. Maung, �In eastern Burma it is even worse, infant and child mortality is twice as high. In displaced areas, one-in-five children will die before their fifth birthday and over 15 percent of children suffer from malnutrition.�

Despite the scale of the crisis, the junta has instead exacerbated the situation, launching the biggest offensive in eastern Burma for a decade in February of this year, displacing an additional 18,000 people.

The BPHWT report concludes that without addressing the factors which drive this health crisis, such as the human rights abuses and inability to access healthcare services, there can be no sustainable solution to this chronic emergency.

For more information please contact:

- Dr. Cynthia Maung ( phone. 09-9615054 )
Note: ( 18:00 to 21:00 hrs Bangkok Local Time)

- Mahn Mahn ( phone. 07-9438750 )



To see the full report please visit www.bphwt.org

A New Addition to the Clear Path Family

If you have seen the home page of our web site, you have probably seen the smiling face of Ho Thi Ha. Ha was injured when she was three years old by a white phosphorous bomb. Her burns were so severe that the calves of her legs fused to to the backs of her thighs. She spent much of her life on her knees until one day a few years ago she hitchhiked to a Clear Path Outreach Clinic...in the last year, thanks to CPI support, she started walking again for the first time since she was three ....you can read more of her story here and here.

A couple weeks ago, "our" Ha became a mother! We could not be more happy to add another little one to the Clear Path family.

Demining in Cambodia at risk as funding dries up

Source: Taipei Times

Demining in Cambodia at risk as funding dries up
AFP , PHNOM PENH
Sunday, Oct 15, 2006

Demining worldwide has been undermined by a sharp drop in funding, and Cambodia is among more than a dozen countries which will likely fail to meet their mine clearance targets as donor money dries up.

The government's demining agency, the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), has lost a fifth of its funding this year, director general Khem Sophoan said.

Read the rest of this article here.

The pictures below are from our landmine survivor vocational skills training classes right on the Mekong River in Kampong Cham, Cambodia.

AP: Nations to form land-mine removal center

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Defense ministers from across the Americas agreed Wednesday to create an international land-mine removal center and many called for joint military missions for disaster relief and peacekeeping worldwide.


Read more here.

Landmine Frisbee Campaign in Singapore Raises Awareness of Clear Path International

To help raise awareness of the landmine crisis worldwide, and the work of Clear Path International, Rapp Collins of Singapore created frisbees that look like landmines and volunteers are tossing them around the city. When someone picks one up, a message on the other side tells the person doing so that the simple act of picking up what you think is a toy in landmine plagued communities can get you killed... it then encourages people to go to the web site of Clear Path International (http://www.cpi.org) to help landmine and bomb survivors.

Quite often children are killed by explosive remnants of war by thinking the bombs/mines are toys... this is a brilliant campaign!

Thank you to David Chee of Rapp Collins!

UPDATE: It is important to note that SINGAPORE is not an area where landmines are a problem. There have been a few comments where people have voiced concerns about children learning to pick up landmines due to this campaign.... that is not at all likely.

Thank you to BoingBoing for picking up this post as well as Houtlust.

Father of Micro Lending, Muhammad Yunus, Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Wow.....! Micro-credit gets its due. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.... Clear Path also takes part in micro-credit/micro-granting programs in Cambodia and Vietnam. In Vietnam, we grant pigs to landmine and bomb surivivors to raise. The first litter of pigs is then donated back into the program, therefore repaying the beneficiaries debt to the program...

Here is more on Mahammad Yannus and the Grameen Bank's Nobel Peace Prize award.

The picture below is Nhi from the Vietnam office. Nhi heads up our pig granting program.

Mines to Vines Founder Blogs from Afghanistan

Founder of Mines to Vines, Heidi Kuhn, is currently blogging form Afghanistan... here is an excerpt:

Dr. Cairo has dedicated his life to this ICRC Clinic in Kabul for the past 17 years, and his professional demeanor is complimented by an incredible sense of humor. As he courageously greets his Afghan �friends� each day, he constantly reminds them that they are not landmine victims, but rather landmine survivors! His medicine is effective in healing the human spirit, as the Afghan smiles greet him as he energetically glides around the facility exuding his Italian charisma.

You can read more of her blog here: http://newrootsinafghanistan.blogspot.com/

Muppets teach children a land mine lesson

Thank you to Ray Doherty for sending this our way. Clear Path's Martha and Kristen met with Fazil, the director of the the Afghan organization featured in the piece below on their recent trip to Afghanistan.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Muppets teach children a land mine lesson
A British charity helps avert tragedy with a children's video on how to spot mines buried throughout Afghanistan.
By Rachel Morarjee | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN � "Bang!" The little puppet boy steps on a mine, and now he only has one leg. The Afghan children watching the video at a school on a Kabul hillside gasp.
Puppets have long been used to entertain and to teach children basic lessons such as how to count and the letters of the alphabet.

Now in Afghanistan the creators of Muppet stars Miss Piggy and Fozzy Bear have teamed up with two charities to teach children a lesson in survival: how not to get killed or maimed by the millions of land mines still buried in the Afghan soil.

Read the rest of the article here.

United States Helps to Clear Lebanon of Explosive Remnants of War

Source U.S. Department of State Press Release

Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
October 4, 2006
Update on United States Aid to Lebanon to Clear Explosive Remnants of War

The United States is committed to reducing the risk to Lebanese civilians posed by explosive remnants of war. From 1998 to the recent conflict, the inter-agency U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program invested more than $17 million dollars to rid Lebanon of persistent landmines and explosive remnants.

Since the onset of the most recent conflict, the United States has dedicated more than $9 million more for quickly and safely clearing these hazards:

* The Department of Defense transferred $5 million to the Department of State, with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) receiving $2.8 million, and $2.2 million contracted through RONCO Consulting Corporation supporting the Lebanese Army Engineer Regiment�s clearing cluster munitions and other unexploded ordinance in south Lebanon.

* The Department of State�s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs provided an initial emergency grant of $420,000 to the MAG. The office also provided an initial $30,000 supporting the United Nations Joint Logistics Center for explosive remnants of war data collection and mapping capability in Lebanon, through its partnership with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. RONCO Consulting Corporation received $384,000, equipping two, 25-person teams to sweep for and mark explosive remnants of war for safe removal.

* The Department of State�s Bureau of International Organization Affairs is providing $2 million to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to sustain the operations of UNDP-controlled explosive clearance teams provided by the MAG and BACTEC International Limited.

* The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded a grant of $1.2 million to the MAG for emergency unexploded ordnance and battle area clearance.

For more information on United States assistance to Lebanon, see the 6th edition of "To Walk the Earth Safety" at www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rpt/walkearth/2006.

Thailand - Myanmar Border: Every dead end street has a side street leading somewhere

The Care Villa, it sounds like a nice place, convenient and relaxing. I have to admit, it is a very special place. The people who live there; the people who dedicate themselves to care for them; the atmosphere� it�s one of those places that you will never forget once you�ve been there. I had been there one time before, a few weeks ago, together with Imbert, Wolfgang, Lori and James to record songs.

It had been a very impressive day and their need for help stayed in my mind ever since. Last week I finally got the opportunity to go back into Mae La refugee camp, back to the Care Villa. My mission was to evaluate the needs and possibilities of all the 16 men living there together. This time, things were different: actually, things were normal.

A normal day, one of many others. For the residents of Care Villa a normal day consists of waking up early, of struggling to get dressed, of being fed, of needing help at the toilet, of finding the way on the touch, of asking a friend to scratch your mosquito bites, of accidentaly bumping into the wooden pillars, of frustration when the mug slips away between the stumps, of sitting, of waiting for the day to pass by. I was there, amongst them, with them, for them. I wanted to get to know the daily routine. I wanted to get to know them. I observed, I saw and I listened. But I didn�t dare to imagine, to be honest.

That�s what I normally do: imagine what it must be like to live with the limitations other people have to face. But the idea of losing both my eyes and my hands makes me simply freak out. I just wouldn�t know what to do. Try it yourself, maybe just for 10 minutes. And no cheating with all sorts of luxurous facilities or tools! No guiding dogs, no 24 hours personal care, no speaking computers, no automatic lights, no sound devices, no high-tech prosthesis controlled by brain activity. Add the imagination of living in a refugee camp, forced to leave your home country, maybe still suffering from nightmares about that life-changing moment when you touched that landmine, not being able to take care of your family in a culture where this might be the most important thing in life.

I got to know them. At least a little bit: the part that they wanted to share with me. Their history, their thoughts, their frustrations, their dreams, their stories. �A group of landmine survivors� became individual persons. Handicaps became challenges. Every dead end street has a side street leading somewhere. We only have to walk down the road first before we can see what�s around the corner.

Clear Path doesn�t turn its back on (what seems to be) a dead end street. We cannot fix eyes, hands or legs. We cannot turn back time or solve the issues in Burma. But we can look for possibilities, a side street, a change of direction; just small things that can make a big difference.