Visiting Clear Path Partners in Hue, Vietnam

CPI Executive Director Kiman Lucas and Vietnam staff visited with members of the Hue Friendship Union

It's always good to be in Vietnam, and with our staff in Dong Ha, where Clear Path International began in 2000, first clearing land of unexploded ordnance and then assisting the victims of encounters with them, as well as their families and communities.

Today we met in the beautiful city of Hue, the home of the last Vietnamese emperor, with members of the Hue Friendship Union, our partner organization in providing Accident Survivor Assistance Programs or ASAP.

I was hosted by Mr. Anh, director of the Hue Friendship Union and former mayor of Hue. Clear Path International has assisted 945 explosive ordinance survivors in the three years in which we have operated ASAP in central Vietnam's Hue Province. We plan to complete our projects here in the next year.

Karen Woman Counters Violence with Care and Compassion

Cresa at far right with children at Mrs. Nana's Farm

By Cresa Pugh, CPI Southeast Asia Resident Manager

Recently, I traveled with Mr. Murakami of the Karen Department of Health and Welfare (KDHW), south of Mae Sot, Thailand, to a small, rural village just outside of Umphang along the Thai-Burma border. This is the location of the home and farmland of Mrs. Nana, a woman from Karen State in Burma who has long been critical to the Karen struggle for freedom, independence and basic human rights. Mrs. Nana is originally from a Karen village just across the border within short walking distance from her current location, but the situation between the two areas could not be more disparate.

History
Several years ago Mrs. Nana operated a clinic in the Karen village that provided basic healthcare to the entire surrounding community. Perceived as a threat to the stability of their regime, and seeking to undermine the capacity of local leaders, the SPDC, Burma's military regime, burned her clinic to the ground. Since then, the government has allowed her to rebuild her operation, but only after she agreed to certain concessions, including a realignment of her political alliances. In the meantime, the government continued to plant landmines in the surrounding areas and insurgents, in defense, did as well.

The result is a dangerous, unstable warzone where parents are afraid to let their children leave their homes, thus disabling them from receiving a proper education and access to other community based necessities. Additionally, countless members of the community have suffered landmine casualties and are now unable to not only receive adequate medical treatment and support, but unable to work in such a way that they are able to support themselves and their families.

During his visits to the region conducting mine risk education workshops, Mr. Murakami identified the need for these survivors to have opportunities to break their cycle of poverty, to stop borrowing money from local lenders at interest rates of up to 100 percent, and to begin making their way toward economic stability and self-sufficiency.

The Project
Mrs. Nana identified 10 landmine survivors and amputees who would participate in a farming initiative that would provide them with comprehensive training in construction, animal husbandry and harvesting, and ultimately provide them with opportunities to launch their own income-generating projects. Specifically, the group, under the instruction of Mr. Murakami, will build and operate a fish pond, raise pigs and chickens, and grow mushrooms.

The project will provide food for the local community as well as the opportunity to sell the products in local markets and make additional money that will provide revenue for the farmers and ultimately can be reinvested into the project to purchase more capital. There is also a well on the farm that will be enhanced to provide access to clean water for some in the surrounding village.

Currently Mrs. Nana has 36 children, a number which fluctuates daily - ages 4 to 14 - living in her home whose parents feel the situation in Karen state is too unstable for them to endure. The children are all receiving a formal education at a local migrant school in her Thai village, but sadly, Thai authorities are planning to close most of the migrant schools along the border. Mrs. Nana plans to open her own migrant school on her farm in the coming months; 29 more children from the Karen village will join her once that happens.

Reflection
With the imminent repatriation of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Burma - mainly Karen - at the hand of the Thai government, the situation along this area of the border is unlikely to change anytime soon. It's easy to feel helpless, hopeless, angry, frustrated, defrauded, sad and the whole host of emotions that accompany senseless conflict, but all is not lost. As long as there are militaries and counterinsurgents and generals and juntas, there will also always be people like Mrs. Nana and countless other individuals who counter the terror and violence, the landmines and rape, with healthcare, education, food, shelter, and love.

I am humbled by the privilege to engage in her efforts, and by the opportunity to work with an organization, Clear Path International, that recognizes the importance of this struggle. CPI provides support for the farming initiative itself, Mr. Murakami's mine risk education train-the-trainer and direct training workshops, and to cover the logistics of Mrs. Nana transporting victims from Karen state to a Thai hospital when a landmine accident occurs.

Donate to Clear Path International here.

Young Cluster Munition Survivor Needs Your Help

Ves Chiveng on his release from the hospital, walking for the first time in six years.

When filmmaker Cathy MacDonald met 15-year-old Ves Chiveng in Phnom Penh, he was in severe pain from a leg swollen and infected with shrapnel that doctors had missed while treating him for cluster munitions injuries six years earlier.

MacDonald, who was in Cambodia making a documentary on cluster munitions clearance, recalls that Chiveng "was in a very bad way" when she first spoke with him.

After his injury near his home in Sre Traeng Village, Cambodian Red Cross took him to Kratie Provincial Hospital for emergency care. But doctors there failed to remove all the shrapnel from the blast. Chiveng's family is Pnong, an ethnic minority, and could not afford the medicines or plasma required for his treatment at state-run hospitals. Although Chiveng and his 20-year-old sister, Phua, live with their uncle and his family of seven Phua is her brother's sole provider. She works in her village a few months a year planting rice and vegetables for about $3 a day.

While Chiveng apparently was eligible for free medical care, his family was not informed of this; nor did they know how to access the treatment required from their small village. As a result, Chiveng was unable to walk or attend school, or receive any effective pain relief for many years following the accident

In February, MacDonald and some of her colleagues at the nonprofit organization, Handicap International, gave Chiveng and his sister money to pay for necessities while he underwent extensive surgical procedures at Kantha Bopha Hospital in Phnom Penh. Chiveng was in the hospital more than two months. Shrapnel also was removed from his right leg and stomach and he was treated for a heart condition. He is now able to walk for the first time since the accident.

Doctors at the Calmette free hospital in Phnom Penh pooled money to pay for Chiveng and his sister to return by taxi to their home. And Cambodian Mine Action Group also raised money to help them.

While Chiveng was in the hospital, MacDonald and Nick Boedicker, program manager of Handicap International, contacted Clear Path International to inquire about the possibility of providing ongoing assistance for Chiveng and his sister Phua during his recovery. HI's victim assistance program in Cambodia focuses on prosthetics and rehabilitation which does not extend to cases such as Chiveng's. Clear Path's work in the country is centered on socio-economic and agricultural support in mine-saturated Battambang Province. Essentially, Chiveng fell through the cracks.

Nevertheless, Samea Vin from Clear Path's partner organization Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development (CVCD) visited Chiveng in the hospital to see how they might help. CVCD helped Phua purchase school clothes and supplies with money from Boedicker, MacDonald and friends while all concerned continued to look for a longer-term solution to the family's troubles.

Chiveng will need ongoing care and transportation for any future checkups or treatment. Phua would like to continue her education, which costs about $10 per month and to train as a hairdresser or seamstress. A bicycle has been bought for Phua to take Chiveng to school, where he will begin again at the second-grade level.

Despite the best efforts of humanitarian organizations, there will always be those who fall through the cracks. Thanks to some caring individuals, Chiveng now has a chance for a much brighter future. Clear Path International wants to make sure that he continues to receive help and that other young Cambodians who find themselves in similar straits also get the assistance they need. If you would like to help Chiveng and others like him, please click here.

Cambodian Villagers Benefit from CPI Savings Program

It was a historic moment for the members of a unique savings program in Cambodia's Phum Seam Village. At a May 25 meeting held at the farmer's cooperative, they received their first savings account books which will allow them to track their contributions and shared savings.

Cresa Pugh, Southeast Asia resident manager for Clear Path International, was on hand as the heads of 38 households proudly accepted their orange savings booklets. CPI and its partner organization, Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development (CVCD), initiated the program two years ago in this small village in the Bovel District of Battambang Province.

Loan programs are quite prevalent in SE Asia countries. Savings schemes are more rare. They require a significant conceptual change. Does a family borrow money to be able to spend money? Or does a family save its money and then spend its own money? A community savings pool allows families to jointly deposit their funds in a financial institution to earn interest and prepare for the future. It is a more sustainable approach in the long term, as compared to loan programs.

This program was designed to teach the landmine survivors the value of saving money for future needs. Each family contributes a few dollars per year to the community savings pool and, in the event of an emergency, can apply to borrow money from the fund at no charge. Since the savings program began, seven families have borrowed money, which was used primarily to cover medical and burial expenses.

Clear Path and CVCD established the Phum Seam Farmers' Cooperative and Rice Mill in 2006 to provide socio-economic and agricultural support to landmine and bomb survivors in three districts in Battambang. The cooperative is located in the K-5 mine belt, a 1,046-kilometer stretch of land along Cambodia's western and northern border with Thailand, where approximately six million landmines were laid between 1979 and 1989. As a result, the region is home to many landmine survivors. Since 2007, CPI has served over 3,000 beneficiaries through the activities of the rice mill, vocational training and micro-credit lending programs.

Launched with contributions amounting to two tons of rice and 580,000 Riel (about $145), the pool now totals 2,466,900 Riel ($616.72), which includes a $325 donation from CVCD made at the May meeting, and 6,000 kilograms of rice.

CVCD hosts meetings frequently throughout the year to provide financial management training and to give participants a forum in which to discuss issues related to the program and raise questions.

Libraries for Myanmar's Monastic Schools

Students attending CPI-sponsored Monastic School on outskirts of Yangon, Burma. One little girl has chosen a tanaka-painted Mickey Mouse to adorn her forehead.


Myanmar has always had a thriving literary community. Books and magazines were available to rent for a few cents in every small township from stalls and public libraries. But access to reading materials, especially for poor children, has become severely limited.

Clear Path International aims to reignite the love of books and reading in Myanmar, and to extend children's learning beyond the boundaries of the national curriculum. By partnering with a local nonprofit organization that promotes literacy and access to children's books, CPI will create libraries in nine monastic schools within three years, and provide materials and support activities that encourage both children and parents to read at community-based libraries in suburbs of Yangon.

Clear Path is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that assists landmine survivors and others disabled or displaced by armed conflict in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. The $20,000 monastic school project is an extension of CPI's work along the border between Thailand and Myanmar, where CPI has provided prosthetic and rehabilitation care, psycho-social services, vocational training and socio-economic support to refugees and internally displaced landmine accident survivors since 2002.

The monastic school system once taught everyone from royal princes to unskilled workers and helped to give Burma a literacy rate above those of other Far Eastern countries in early 1900s. Nowadays, in Yangon and Mon State, monastic schools are limited to providing a free but basic education for orphans and children from the poorest families. Many of the parents are themselves illiterate.

CPI has found that these schools lack basic teaching materials and skills to instill a love of reading. The six schools in Yangon included in the project do not have libraries. The three schools in Mon State have areas designated for libraries but do not have appropriate, good-quality books or the skilled personnel to manage the libraries. In general, public access to reading materials, especially for children, is almost non-existent in present-day Myanmar. Bookshops charge about 5,000 Kyats per children's book ($5.50 US), putting them out of the reach of most parents.

Only good quality books, some in Myanmar and some in English, will be donated to the monastic schools located in several townships. Each school will receive 300 new books and will allow students to enjoy dedicated library time. Teachers or volunteer librarians will be taught each term to catalogue and maintain the books, and to manage the libraries. Additionally, representatives from CPI's partner organization will work with teachers and parents to improve their ability to read effectively to children. Children will be encouraged to perform simple comprehension exercises through school and library-based competitions.

The project begins June 1, 2011 and is estimated to benefit 3,461 children and more than 100 teachers, as well as the families of the students.

Clear Path Launches Large-Scale Ramp Project in Afghanistan

When more than 800,000 Afghans are severely disabled, it's easy to see why there's a drastic need for schools, hospitals, government buildings and places of worship to be made accessible to them.

But people with disabilities in Afghanistan have suffered from a nearly universal lack of access to these and other important buildings and facilities. The Afghanistan Central Office of Statistics has estimated that 98 percent of all buildings cannot be entered by wheelchair.

This past year, Clear Path International launched a pilot project to alter this situation by constructing high-quality ramps at key locations throughout the country applying best practices established in the industry. Clear Path is a nonprofit organization that assists victims of landmines and other explosives, and others disabled or displaced by armed conflict in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan.

Not only are the projects performing a critical service for this vulnerable segment of Afghanistan's population, they also are helping to establish good will between the United States and Afghan leaders at a time when that relationship has been severely stressed. CPI programs in Afghanistan are funded by the U.S. Department of State Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA).

"We've had two different reports that the Ulema (Council of Mullahs and Imams in Afghanistan) has specifically mentioned the work of CPI at the Eid Gah Mosque, as well as commented positively in general on the role of Americans bringing accessibility changes at this very high-profile religious site," said CPI Program Manager Matthew Rodieck. "One of the leaders of the Ulema, a double-amputee martyr and former Mujahedin commander, was especially complimentary."

Eid Gah Mosque in Kabul (shown here) is one of the highest profile mosques in Afghanistan and is where VIPs regularly worship and hold funeral prayers of martyrs. CPI through its Afghan partner organization, Accessibility Organization for Afghan Disabled (AOAD), built three ramps complete with handrails. In Kabul, CPI and AOAD also constructed three ramps at the Antoni Infectious Disease Hospital, an important referral site for tertiary care and the only facility of its kind in the country.

In Kapisa Province, north of Kabul, Afghan Amputee Bicyclists for Rehabilitation and Recreation (AABRAR) developed and implemented access ramps at several diverse sites. These included the main mosque of the capital city, which became the only physically accessible mosque in the entire province, the Ministry of Information and Culture, and the Ministry of Education. Several public schools throughout the rural community were also ramp sites in the AABRAR project, each selected based on feedback from local authorities about their priorities.

In Balkh Province, in the north of Afghanistan, Afghan Landmine Survivor Organization (ALSO) constructed access ramps at several educational settings across Mazar-i Sharif, the main city of Balkh. The sites selected included co-educational elementary schools, boys' high schools, girls' high schools, and the Balkh University making it one of the few institutions of higher learning in the entire country with accessible buildings.

Going forward, CPI hopes to build nearly 600 ramps at 350 sites throughout Afghanistan. The $660,000 project funded by WRA will involve the same three partner organizations. A key component of the ramp project is to raise awareness of the rights of people with disabilities, said Rodieck. "Awareness is quite low; there's not much sensitivity."

That awareness campaign also will make its way into the classroom at Kabul Technical University's Engineering School where CPI hopes it will result in some practical solutions. "We want to engage the entire faculty on physical accessibility design," Rodieck said. "We want to advocate on a more institutional level that the curriculum become more realistic."

CPI Afghan Program Featured in Journal of ERW & Mine Action

Volunteer Visits CPI Staff & Programs in Vietnam

This posting is by Clear Path volunteer Sandy Schubach who recently visited our staff and programs in Vietnam.

The Clear Path team in Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, is truly inspirational. It has been so heartwarming to see them in action, both in the office and at the homes of the beneficiaries. Chi, Duc, Nhi, Phuong, and Tam are compassionate, attentive, and very respectful. I was happy to learn that Clear Path is well-known here in Quang Tri, and 95% of the time they respond to an accident within 24 hours, even on weekends. It was also nice to see the Clear Path logo on display in restaurants and museums. The locals know they can count on CPI to help them if needed for victim assistance.

Besides providing direct assistance to UXO (unexploded ordnance) victims in the form of reimbursement for medical costs, CPI also helps them in other areas. An accident can leave a family without a breadwinner, a devastating loss. Only children living below the poverty level here (about $2800 annual income per family) are allowed to go to school for free, so Clear Path helps with scholarships for those children that need them. Grants can also be made to help a family get back on their feet after an accident. The economic impact of a UXO accident is dramatic. Besides medical expenses, the time spent in the hospital is time away from farming or working. If a child is in the hospital, a parent is usually with them as well, or the transportation costs to get continued medical care are steep.

Some people request a grant to use the money to purchase chickens, piglets, cows, or other farm animals which can generate income and provide a food source. Clear Path takes care to learn the specific needs of accident victims.

The staff here has also started a program to get accident victims in touch with each other to provide caring and support. A recent victim can get inspiration and affirmation from one who has overcome his disability. Groups are taken on field trips, a very special event here. They also participate in the Vietnamese version of special olympics, a wonderful program.

It's sad to think that more than 40 years after the war accidents still happen from UXOs, ruining lives and families. CPI Vietnam provides stellar services in victim assistance here, and I salute them.

Visiting Beneficiaries in Vietnam

CPI Southeast Asia Program Director Melody Mociulski has been visiting staff and beneficiaries in Vietnam and Cambodia with volunteer Sandy Schubach and CPI Board Chairman Laurie Miller.

We've spent two and a half days here in Dong Ha with the CPI team: Chi, Phuong, Nhi, and Duc. It is wonderful to see them again - like coming home. They have all worked for CPI for several years, Chi and Duc since the beginning, when CPI started in 2000. I am so very proud of their efforts to provide quality and thoughtful victim assistance to UXO survivors and their families in 14 provinces of Vietnam.

Today we visited two beneficiaries: an 11-year-old boy, Binh, whose left eye was severely damaged when he found a bomb ignitor on the street and tried to plug the red wires into an electrical outlet. He was lucky his injuries were not worse. Nevertheless, the accident has had a major impact to his family, both economically and emotionally.

And we met Kha and his wife. He lost a leg many years ago in a UXO accident, and is unable to shoulder the responsibilities of providing for his wife, three children, and two elderly parents. CPI provided them with a pig - one very large mama pig - to raise. Future piglets will be sold to generate income for the family.

We also visited some of the DMZ monuments and museums, conducted performance evaluations and learned more about life and culture in Vietnam.

Tomorrow Duc will drive us to Hue, a UN heritage city, and we will start our trek home via a night in Bangkok.

Courage and Dedication in Lao PDR

Longtime CPI volunteer Sandy Schubach is traveling with Southeast Asia Program Director Melody Mociulski and videotaping some of our programs there. This week, they are in Lao PDR where Clear Path is establishing a micro-credit program in an area heavily impacted by mines.

Yesterday and today I met so many amazing, dedicated, courageous people: a woman with a disability who opened up her home to help other women with disabilities and now runs a sustainable educational center to teach those women with disabilities skills and independence; an 18-year-old student in that center who has learned to weave with one hand; women who run a nation-wide union of Laos women; a man who has lived in SE Asia for over 20 years and is dedicated to helping clear the area of unexploded ordnance; volunteers who help run a shop to build and deliver wheelchairs to those in need of them; and people determined to set up clinics in the provinces to provide the most basic of heath care.

Traveling and meeting with other non-governmental agencies gives such an insight into the people and culture of a country, and truly makes me appreciate how much I have, and realize how some live with so little. While it's difficult to learn how much some of the local agencies are struggling to fulfill basic needs, it's encouraging to see their optimism and determination to provide services.

On a different note, Vientiane is an interesting city, with exotic smells, crowded streets, temples, heat and humidity. We made an early morning visit to a stupa and enjoyed walking around watching the city come to life. Tomorrow we leave this capital and head north to Luang Prabang.

Mosques, Schools, Hospitals Made Accessible to Disabled Afghans

CPI has been at the forefront of developing practical guidelines for the construction of physical accessibility ramps in Afghanistan.

With special funding from the Weapons Removal and Abatement section of the U.S. Department of State's Political Military Affairs Department, CPI has developed pilot projects in conjunction with three of its implementing partners. Each partner undertook physical accessibility project sites at key public buildings in different provinces where unmet needs were prioritized and where security conditions permitted the projects to be undertaken.

In Kabul, Accessibility Organization for Afghan Disabled (AOAD) developed and implemented access ramps at four locations, including three mosques: a neighborhood mosque that functioned as a polling station in last year's parliamentary election; a larger community mosque with a rare co-educational madrassa; and one of the highest profile mosques in all of Afghanistan, the Eid Gah Mosque, where several VIPs regularly worship and where important funeral prayers of martyrs are held. For its fourth accessibility project, AOAD selected the Antoni Infectious Disease Hospital, an important referral site for tertiary care and the only such facility in the country.

In Kapisa Province, north of Kabul, Afghan Amputee Bicyclists for Rehabilitation and Recreation (AABRAR) developed and implemented access ramps at several diverse sites. These included the main mosque of the capital city, which became the only physically accessible mosque in the entire province, the Ministry of Information and Culture, and the Ministry of Education. Several public schools throughout the rural community were also ramp sites in the AABRAR project, each selected based on feedback from local authorities about their priorities.

In Balkh Province, in the north of Afghanistan, Afghan Landmine Survivor Organization (ALSO) constructed access ramps at several educational settings across Mazar-i Sharif, the main city of Balkh. The sites selected included co-educational elementary schools, boys' high schools, girls' high schools, and the Balkh University making it one of the few institutions of higher learning in the entire country with accessible buildings.

The photos linked to this posting are from field mission inspection visits conducted in December, January, and February by Matthew Rodieck (CPI-AFG Program Manager) and Zabiullah Azimi (CPI-AFG Program Coordinator).

On the Road in Cambodia

Clear Path Southeast Asia Program Director Melody Mociulski is visiting programs and partners in Cambodia with Board of Directors President Laurie Miller.

Mid-ninety's and three showers today. Guess I shouldn't complain as our taxi driver told us it was up to 44 degrees Celsius last year during the hot season. And yet, we saw a couple young Cambodian girls wearing jackets yesterday.

Laurie and I met with our implementing partner, CVCD (Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development) today. After a year of email and Skype, it was delightful to have face-to-face time with Sama and the team. It is remarkable to see their strides over the past year on the road to sustainability as an organization and as individual staff members. Both Saveth and Sylong have made significant improvements with their English (definitely important to me as I have no sense of Khmer).

I told them about my interest in savings programs, a major mind shift to go from "borrow & spend" to "save first / spend later." I shared with them that I met with members of an organization in Thailand that is doing this successfully in a few of the Burmese communities.

Saveth blew me away when he explained that they are already piloting a savings project out at the Farmers Co-op. They laid the groundwork by discussing with the villagers the benefits and the mechanics, and they're moving forward. For me, it was a tangible example of how far CVCD has come. Not only are they being creative, but they are thinking strategically, financially, and most definitely, compassionately.



Sama took Laurie and I out to one of the newer squatter communities schools on the outskirts of town. This isn't a program funded by CPI, but I believe that much of their success is due to the capacity building support provided by CPI. These schools are CVCD's core strength and a visible example of the difference they are making in the lives of Cambodians.

After a half hour bumpy, dusty ride in the tuk tuk, we turned down a dirt 'lane' that was barely visible. Families living in this community used to live on the streets after being forced out to the outskirts of town by the government. It resembles a shanty town but is definitely an improvement for these families. Turning a corner with many curious faces staring out at us, we arrived at the one-room school where 24 boys and girls were taking exams.

CVCD built the school and provides a very dedicated teacher, school supplies and one set of uniforms for each child. When the children move on to secondary school, CVCD provides each child with a bicycle for transport to school. Without the bicycle, they would not be able to attend school given the distance and their responsibilities to their families. These children would not have an education without this opportunity. They are the hope for the future for their families and for Cambodia, and are thoroughly motivated to learn.

CPI Helps Raise Funds for School for the Deaf in Kabul

CPI organized a fundraiser event to support a needy School for the Deaf in Kabul. On Friday, Feb. 11, art work produced by students and staff of the School for the Deaf went on sale to raise money that will keep the school operational during a funding gap.

The school is a public, free, Ministry of Education-certified, co-educational facility located in the Khair Khana neighborhood of Kabul. In service since 1994, the school had been operated by the Family Welfare Focus (FWF, an Afghan NGO), along with clinical support and vocational training for deaf children in grades 1-12. They have recently found themselves facing a short-term funding gap which has left them struggling to cover their operational budget for January through March. (Beginning April 1st, they have donor support in place again).



Closing the school for three months would certainly have jeopardized the progress of the more than 300 students currently enrolled and create obvious financial difficulties for the school's highly dedicated teachers (most of whom are women).

While the FWF School for the Deaf is not a CPI implementing partner organization for victim assistance programming, CPI's goal was to help them help themselves through organizing this first-ever fundraiser. The four-hour event generated more than $2,000 in sales of artwork towards the school's operating costs.

Subsequently, the staff of the Kabul offices of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) have organized a follow-up art sale fundraiser in this same style but at Kabul's Serena Hotel on Feb. 18. This follow-up event was organized by JICA staff as a direct result of CPI's original efforts at bringing attention to the FWF School for the Deaf.

Afghan Cricket Team Wins Despite Disabilities

There are times when the term "disabled" simply doesn't apply. That's definitely true for the cricket team sponsored by Clear Path International in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. Although team members all possess some type of physical disability, their winning record against completely able-bodied opponents calls into question whether labeling them as the disabled cricket team is indeed appropriate.

The team was created by CPI's partner, Afghan Disabled Vulnerable Society (ADVS), to provide sports activities for youth with physical challenges, and to change public perceptions about the role of disabled persons in the community. Most of the players live in Jalalabad City, the bustling epicenter of the province near the Pakistan border. They are landmine survivors, young men who have contracted polio, or who've suffered in other ways from violence or disease related to war and the lack of medical care.

And yet they excel at competitive cricket. These men have played together for more than two years, having won several matches against teams without a single disabled player. Recently, they won the overall trophy in a five-team tournament in Jalalabad. Over three days, they defeated each of the opposing teams, none of which had disabled members.

Through its expert coaches, ADVS trains young men for physically challenging sports, teaches them cooperative and team-focused skills and shores up their self-esteem.


ADVS is one of several Afghan organizations that partner with Clear Path to assist persons with disabilities, including survivors of landmine and cluster munition accidents.

CPI's Afghan program, funded by the Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, has already helped more than 16,000 people with disabilities in the war-torn nation. CPI also assists victims of war in Vietnam, Cambodia, along the Thai-Burma border and in Lao PDR.

By CPI Afghan Program Manager Matthew Rodieck

Mines Advisory Group: Casualties from Landmine & Unexploded Ordnance Rise

Photo Credit: Mines Advisory Group

Our friends at Mines Advisory Group have written about the increase in casualties from unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, where Clear Path International has been providing victim assistance since 2001. Clear Path began in the most heavily mine impacted areas of Cambodia with vocational training programs and shipments of medical equipment to support hospitals. CPI established the Phum Seam Farmers' Cooperative and Rice Mill in 2006 to provide socio-economic and agricultural support to landmine/ERW survivors in three districts in Battambang. In 2010 CPI and implementing partner CVCD initiated a new micro-credit project in Kamrieng District in Battambang Province, one of the areas recently cleared of mines by MAG.

The number of landmine and unexploded ordnance casualties in Cambodia rose by 17 per cent to 286 last year, underlining the continued need for MAG's lifesaving work in the country.

Figures from the Cambodian Mine/Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System (CMVIS) show that 71 people died and 215 were injured as a result of 150 accidents, the same accident total as recorded in 2009.

Read the rest of the story here.

Cluster Bomb Kills Vietnamese Farmer

Ngoc Chinh was simply trying to earn some extra money. The effort cost him his life.
The 49-year-old farmer had been hired to dig holes where trees would be planted in the Hai Lang District of Quang Tri Province. Most of his family was away from home attending the wedding of a relative. Chinh had stayed behind with his daughter who had classes to attend.

On Nov. 24, Chinh left home early, taking his lunch along so he could spend more time working in the forestry area of Hai Lam Commune. His daughter went to class in the morning, did her homework in the afternoon, then prepared dinner and waited for her father to return.

By 10 p.m. when Chinh still had not arrived home, the girl became worried and ran to the neighbors to ask for help. Several men went with flashlights in search of Chinh.
They found him dead on the plot where he had been working. The steel blade of his hoe had been destroyed by the blast from a cluster bomb, the remains of which were also found on the site.

When staff from Clear Path International, a nonprofit organization that assists victims of war-era explosives, visited the family's home, Chinh's body had already been placed in a coffin. His daughter and friends were waiting for Chinh's mother, wife and two other children to return home before holding the funeral.

The accident that took Chinh's life occurred less than two weeks after delegates, diplomats and aid workers from around the globe met in neighboring Lao PDR to further their attempts to eradicate cluster munitions.

The First Meeting of Sates Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions was held in the capital city, Vientiane, from Nov. 9 to 12. To date, 108 countries have signed the treaty, which establishes international law to ban the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions and mandates their destruction.

Heavy Bombing Campaign in Lao Leaves Scars, Live Munitions

Xieng Khuang Province, Lao PDR - Looking down from a window of our airplane, I see that the lush green landscape of the high plateau is pockmarked with brown craters, still empty of vegetation more than 30 years after they were made.

These are the scars of the U.S. government's nine-year-long "secret" bombing campaign over this small, landlocked country that borders Vietnam to the east. U.S. bombing records show that over 20,000 missions involving the release of roughly 46 million cluster munitions occurred over Xieng Khuang Province.

The area was of strategic importance as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, used by North Vietnamese forces with the consent of Lao revolutionary forces to send supplies and personnel around the de-militarized zone in central Vietnam, cut through Xieng Khuang's forests and mountains.

Six groups of foreign delegates, diplomats and representatives from international nonprofit organizations visited the province and a number of unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance sites during the recent First Meeting of Sates Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, the capital of Lao PDR. Three of us from Clear Path International, myself as communications director, our executive director and the manager of a program we're starting here in Laos, were among the visitors.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

CPI is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that provides medical and socio-economic assistance to UXO survivors, their families and their communities in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. In Laos, we are partnering with the Lao Women's Union to provide low-interest loans to female heads of households in Xieng Khuang Province to finance home-based businesses.

Our funding for this and other programs comes from the U.S. Department of State Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. During the convention, there was a good deal of discussion in side events about the United States not being a signatory to the convention, which establishes international law to ban the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions and mandates their destruction. To date, 108 countries have adopted the convention.

And while the US was without official representation, officials from the embassy here did attend many of the workshops. In September 2008, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the US has not participated in the convention because there are no good substitute munitions and that the "elimination of cluster munitions from our stockpiles would put the lives of our soldiers and our coalition partners at risk."

Under the current policy issued by the Department of Defense in 2008, by the end of 2018 the US will no longer use cluster munitions with more than a 1 percent chance of not exploding upon impact. Of the estimated 3 million tons of bombs dropped on Lao soil, about a third failed to go off when dropped. They continue to claim lives, usually those of Lao children, long after the fighting ended.

It is the hope of the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international civil society campaign working to eradicate these weapons, and other INGOs including ours that the US will eventually join the treaty and ban their use altogether. President Barack Obama's administration has not yet conducted a review of U.S. policy on cluster munitions, but Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) along with 14 other members of the Senate have written to the president, urging him to conduct a thorough review of the national policy on the weapons.

The US has acknowledged use of cluster munitions in Afghanistan in 2002 and in Iraq in 2003. In June 2010, Amnesty International reported that it appears the US used cluster munitions in an attack on an alleged al-Qa 'ida training camp in Yemen in December 2009, but neither the US nor Yemeni governments have responded publicly to the Amnesty International allegations.

Despite unwillingness by the US to completely abandon use of cluster munitions, it reportedly has been and will continue to be the largest contributor to UXO clearance and victim assistance here in Laos, having spent $51 million to date. In 2010, the US will have spent $5.1 million on UXO efforts by the year's end, an amount that is expected to increase to $7 million for 2011.

During the visit to one of several clearance sites in Xieng Khuang, CPI staff and others witnessed - from a safe distance - the detonation of 36 cluster bombs. The blasts, timed to go off within minutes of each other, sent enormous plumes of smoke, dirt, stones and shrapnel into the pale blue sky and the explosions echoed off the surrounding hills.

Each time, I felt a thud deep in my chest. At one point, I exhaled deeply, not realizing I had been holding my breath, thankful that no lives had been lost, no injuries sustained - this time.

On Basketballs and Bombs

Lao PDR - I am on a basketball court in Vientiane. The shouts of the players and the cheers from onlookers bounce off the walls of the brightly lit gym as we race between baskets, dribbling, passing, shooting - all from our wheelchairs.



I am not disabled but the special sports chair I am strapped into levels the playing field for those among us who are physically impaired. In theory. In reality, the field is anything but level. The disabled players who have practiced and competed here at the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) are much more adept at the sport of wheelchair basketball, which demands an athletic stamina and dexterity that many of us guest participants have never known and will never acquire.

The makeup of our audience is as unusual as that of the two teams on the court. In suits and ties and other evening attire, foreign diplomats and representatives from international humanitarian organizations - including my own U.S.-based nonprofit, Clear Path International - have come via multiple buses from many hotels throughout Lao's capital city to visit programs run by the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise, or COPE, in partnership with the NRC.

This is just one of many side events offered at the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is appropriate that the four-day conference (Nov. 9-12) is being held in the country most heavily bombed during the Vietnam War, a country that more than three decades later has the largest cluster munitions problem in the world.

Roughly 3 million tons of bombs were dropped on Lao soil, the majority of which were cluster munitions. It's estimated that a third of those failed to explode on impact and lay dormant, sometimes for many years, until disturbed by a curious child, farmer or other villager. Thousands of people have been killed or maimed here since 1963 and unexploded ordnance (UXO) continue to claim about 300 Lao lives each year. About half of all victims are children who discover the ball-shaped cluster munitions or "bombies" while playing near their rural villages.

Clear Path International, which provides medical and socio-economic assistance to UXO victims, their families and their communities in other Southeast Asian Countries and in Afghanistan, is just beginning a new program in Lao PDR with funding from the U.S. Department of State Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. So the conference has provided a perfect introduction for myself and four others from CPI to the ongoing and unmet needs of people here, and to the programs already helping war victims reclaim their dignity, health and economic security.

The meeting brings together state parties to the treaty, United Nations agencies, international organizations, civil society and cluster bomb survivors to lay the groundwork for implementing the convention adopted two years ago and translating its objectives into action. The convention establishes international law to ban the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions and mandates their destruction.

On May 30, 2008, following negotiations in Dublin, 107 states adopted the convention. That same year, 94 governments signed the treaty in Oslo. Early this year, the convention achieved a milestone when the 30th ratification was deposited at the UN, triggering its entry into force on Aug. 1, when it became binding international law.

As of this posting, with the current meeting still in progress, 108 countries had signed and 43 of those had taken the next step and ratified the convention, becoming state parties legally bound by its provisions.

While the United States is not a signatory, it has spent millions of dollars clearing unexploded ordnance and providing support services for victims in numerous countries. CPI programs in Vietnam, Cambodia, along the Thai-Burma border, in Afghanistan, and now in Lao PDR have been made possible by such funding.

And the five of us here in Lao on behalf of CPI, our executive director, myself as communications director, and program managers from the countries in which we work are proud to participate in this historic event. I know my colleagues took great pleasure in documenting my own performance on the basketball court, in dress pants and pumps no less.

Seattle Man to Run 300K for Landmine Victims

A Seattle physical therapist will compete in one of the toughest footraces on the planet while raising funds to help landmine accident survivors.

Wolfgang Brolley, who also is a chocolatier, business owner and circus arts practitioner, will participate in the eight-day, multinational GORE-TEX Transalpine-Run in which 250 teams of two people each cover 300 kilometers, gain 60,000 feet of elevation and pass through three countries (Germany, Austria and Italy) all on mountain trails through the Alps. This hard-running challenge begins Sept. 4 and will be completed in seven stages and one mountain sprint.

Brolley's cause, Running Cuz They Can't!, asks sponsors to donate money to non-profit organizations that assist landmine and bomb victims. One of the organizations that sponsors may choose to support is Clear Path International, based on Bainbridge Island. Brolley has volunteered his services on numerous occasions to CPI, which has programs in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia and along the Thai-Burma border.

"All the donations I gather will be going to landmine relief and assistance," Brolley said. "People can make a flat donation, or sponsor by mile/kilometer/feet of elevation covered - they just need to know this is a LONG race and those numbers will be big!"

Brolley, who has practiced for 20 years treating sports, spine and over-use injuries, has a bachelors degree from Stanford University in Asian Studies and a physical therapy degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine.

To donate, contact Wolf at stretchpt@live.com. For more information about the Transalpine Run, go to www.transalpine-run.com. Visit www.cpi.org to learn about Clear Path International.

UN says that in Vietnam Life-threatening landmine scavenging on the increase

Via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

"Nguyen Luong Quy was planting a tree on a coffee plantation on the outskirts of Buon Ma Thout, the largest city in Vietnam's Central Highlands in 2000, when his shovel hit a hard metal object.

"There was a big explosion and I must have been knocked unconscious," the 37-year-old farmer told IRIN. "I woke up in hospital and at first I thought I was dead because everything was white."

Although his left arm was blown off, Quy survived the blast, caused by a bomblet - one of millions of cluster bombs dropped by American forces between 1964 and 1973.

But despite his first-hand experience of the dangers of unexploded ordnance (UXO), like many poor Vietnamese, Quy continues to scavenge for the metal contained in cluster bomblets and other unexploded munitions....

...."Scrap metal provides a decent and immediate income without needing any qualifications or investment," notes Tran Hong Chi from Clear Path International (CPI), an UXO victim assistance charity in Dong Ha, the provincial capital of Quang Tri.

"It's not just farmers or the jobless who need the money. In July, a teacher was killed while digging up a bomb during his summer vacation. He had a good job and should have known about the risks."

At the same time, the global economic slowdown is straining the budgets of the NGOs involved in mine clearance."

Read the rest of this article at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87822