CPI Supporter Writes song for Louisiana

Those that have been to recent Clear Path events on the east coast will be familiar with Rick Redington. Rick has written a song for Louisiana hurricane victims in the hopes that it will inspire people to give to the relief effort.

The song can be found here.

Nice job, Rick!

The World's Heaviest Landmine Survivor

Meet Motola... landmine survivor and recent recipient of an artificial limb. Read more here

Nghia's Making a Steady Recovery!

Toan posts this story from the field about the progress of our young friend, Nghia. You can read more about Nghia here.

One day in August 2005, I received a phone call from the Medical Liaison in Hue informed that Nghia wanted to have prosthetics legs. We CPI staff were very happy with this good news�

I came to visit Nghia on a weekend day August 27^th at his house in Hue. Seeing him sitting on the wheelchair outside the house, he looked so relaxed with a smile on his face when he saw me. He looked great and a bit fatter compared to 3 months ago. As a new school year is coming, I brought him a box with CPI logo, in which there are several stuff like pen, eraser, etc and asked him if he was ready to get back. He seemed very excited in answering me: �Yes, I want to go back to school this year. I have missed my classmates and teachers a lot but I have to delay this for some time�. He then smiled at Son, the Medical Liaison, with a shy look �I went to Hue Central Hospital on August 24^th for checking if I can wear prosthetic legs. It is good that the doctor said yes. And I have my legs measured already. I may have it in 10 days. I then need to stay in the hospital for a month to practise. I am longing for that from now�.

I could see his eyes twinked with the light of happiness. In fact, he had changed a lot in his spirit. From being upset and depressed after in uxo accident in March, the smile is now quite often in his face. His voice is also now more clearer and stronger. He told me that he really wanted to use the prosthetics which would help him walk a bit at first. Even though it is not real legs, he could be more confident in standing on his own legs instead of the wheelchair.

Recent Accidents

Hi Chi and the Vietnam CPI Staff,

I am so sad to read about these last two accidents. I send my support to you guys because I know it is very difficult to see death and destruction every week. I can't even imagine having to see the devastation time after time.

I go there only about once a year and it takes me a while to recover from the reality of innocent farmers, children, and scrap metal collectors maimed and killed. I've been back here around three weeks and I am still thinking about Nghia (the 13 year-old boy who lost both feet and one hand in March) every day. It is haunting me. And his is only one case out of so many.

Sending support from here...

Always,

Joan

August 25: One man killed, house down to ashes

The phone rang just as we enter the office after lunch break. Another UXO accident had just happened in Vinh Lam commune, Vinh Linh district. The informant just briefed that it was a serious accident involved a man killed and the house was completely burned down.

The house is located at the end of Tien Lai village; and as we were walking to it, we saw our neighbor, Cliff Allen, the Technical Field Manager of MAG, was walking in the opposite direction. His hands were holding two UXOs. Behind him was another MAG�s deminer carrying more UXOs. They found these within the family�s property.

The scene looked devastating. The house, or it should be more correctly to say what ever remain of the house, were still burning as we stepped in. Smoke was coming up from everywhere. The house had completely burned down to ashes, included furniture, clothes and a motorcycle. Some men were spraying water from a tiny water hose onto burning things to put out the fire; most of the villagers were standing out as more UXOs were suspected to be present. Several MAG�s deminers were checking the back yard of the house with their metal detectors. Three men were wandering along the bamboo fence, searching for any remains of the poor man.


The victim was Truong Quang Quyet, a 52 years old man. The accident happened at 10:15 when he was tampering a large caliber UXO in a corner in the back of the house. At 10 o�clock, Quyet�s wife was watching TV with her daughter when Quyet got home on his motor bike. He propped the bike and went directly to the kitchen. Fifteen minutes later the wife told her daughter to set the table for lunch and just as the girl entered the kitchen, a loud explosion occurred from the back corner of the house. The explosion knocked down the house and set everything on fire. The wife, after gathered her wits, ran out and screamed out loud for help.
The first men arrived at the site rushed into the flaming home and pulled out the panicked girl (luckily, she was unhurt), and looked for the father. They did not find him in the flame. The powerful blast had thrown him out in a red dirt path outside the house, about 20m from the detonation point.
According to the chairman of Vinh Lam commune, this is the worse accident happened in the area for the last 15 years that includes lost of live and property.

Father of Five Killed by Bomb in Vietnam

Sounds of lament could be heard from a distance. Neighbors were quietly preparing for the funeral. An altar was set up right at the main entrance to the living room. A green curtain separates the altar from a bed in which laid the body of Nguyen Duy Khanh covered under a rush mat. On one side of the bed laid Khanh�s two sons facing down on the cement floor. They�d been shocked and exhausted for crying too much. On the other side of the bed were the rest of the family members: sisters, mother and daughters, all were grieving.

The accident happened at 5p.m on the previous day, August 23rd, 2005. Khanh and one of his sons, Nguyen Van Chung were hoeing land in an area about 3 kms east from Nhi Thuong village. It is a sandy hill by the coast of Gio Linh known as �hill 31� to locals. The hill once served as the starting point of the McNamara�s line, a defensive system established along the southern edge of the DMZ. Chung was about ten meters away from his father when he heard an explosion. He turned around and saw his father was down on the ground. He rushed up and realized that the father was in serious condition: he lost his left hand, broke his right arm and the right thigh was broken off. Khanh was bleeding hard and this scares the young boy. He ran out to look for help and returned with four more men. The injured was taken to commune aid station and then forwarded to district hospital but Khanh couldn�t make it. He died on the way.
Khanh is 52 years old and is father of 5 dependent children. His first daughter is a college student while the youngest child is still in the 6th grade.

US-Vietnam War Continues to Claim Lives, Limbs In Central Vietnam

QUANG TRI, Vietnam - August 22 - The US-Vietnam War continues to claim lives and limbs here in Central Vietnam. Bombs that lie scattered across the landscape detonate on a regular basis killing and maiming adults and children on a regular basis.

51 year old Tran Ca was clearing weeds last week near an ancestral tomb in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam when his hoe hit a piece of unknown ordnance. The piece exploded and he died from his injuries in the hospital an hour later. His son in law, Ky was slightly injured in the accident.

Also last week, 17 year old Tran Dinh Quan lost an eye and a hand when a piece of ordnance he discovered exploded and nearly killed him. He was removing brush from a bomb crater near his home to raise fish for his family. Bomb craters are commonplace in this part of Vietnam which still feels the effects of a war that ended long ago.

Although the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago, by some estimates over 350,000 tons of bombs that did not detonate when dropped remain in the ground. This ordnance regularly claims lives and limbs in this still war-ravaged province. Since the conflict ended in 1975, nearly 40,000 Vietnamese have been killed by by these munitions.

Clear Path International serves landmine and bomb accident survivors, their families and their communities in former war zones in Southeast Asia. This assistance takes the form of both direct and indirect medical and social services to survivor families as well as equipment support to hospitals. Current Clear Path projects are in Vietnam, Cambodia and on the Thai-Burma border.