Hearts and Mines: A documentary on the work of Clear Path International

All of us at Clear Path are thrilled to see the new trailer for HEARTS AND MINES the documentary by Dr. Joan Widdifield, a long-time CPI supporter. Hearts and Mines follows the CPI Vietnam staff as they work with landmine and bomb accident survivors and their families.

Great work, Joan! We look forward to the full movie!
If the movies is not showing up in your browser, below, you can go to http://vimeo.com/7350650 to check it out!

Hearts & Mines trailer from Hearts & Mines on Vimeo.

Clear Path International Provides The Gift of Hands for the Landmine Survivors at Care Villa

Palaw weeding after receiving a prosthetic hand from Clear Path International

By Melody Mociulski

Mae Sot, Thailand - Since we began supporting the Care Villa in 2002, we at Clear Path have dreamed of providing prosthetic hands for the amputees we serve there. Many of them have lost one or both arms in a landmine explosion and are wholly dependent on others for their care. Almost every time we visit our Karen friends at the giant sprawling Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border, we are asked for a device that will allow the men to use their upper limbs.

Now, two young American volunteers, Missy Malkush and Rachel Clagett, have made the dream come true. They arrived at the Care Villa this month with the gift of hands.

Care Villa, located about an hour from the Thai border town of Mae Sot, is a 24-hour residential care facility for 18 physically-handicapped, dependent Burmese landmine survivors who have lost their eyesight, hands, legs, hearing, or some combination. Most all suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression. They are marginalized by their community and are considered a burden to their families who already live in impoverished conditions.

Clear Path International is the primary source of support for these 18 men, aged 15-65, providing shelter and daily caretaking. To help the men deal with the anguish of their situation, music provides an outlet for their voices to be heard. A song written by one of the men describes their spirit to heal and find fulfillment in their lives.

I lost my eyes, so I can't look at you.
I lost my arms, so I can't hold you.
I lost my legs, so I can't come with you.
My heart is broken, but I've still got my voice.
So I'll sing.

Rachel, pursuing a Doctorate in Physical Therapy, and Missy, with a Master's in Prosthetics and Orthotics, have been friends since their freshman year at Wake Forest University. They found themselves at a complacent point of their lives, and on a whim and unbeknownst to each other, each googled landmine victims and discovered Clear Path. A few months later they began their journey to Mae Sot to volunteer with Clear Path at the Care Villa and the Mae Tao Clinic to help landmine victims.

Hearing about the needs of the men at the Villa, Missy reached out to a colleague at LN-4 Hand, a non-profit in California which has designed prosthetic hands for developing countries. The hands are simple, innovative and easily fitted. With a protective sock worn underneath, the universal size prosthetic is wrapped around the limb and secured tightly over the bones of the elbow joint with a Velcro cuff. A combination of stationary and adjustable prongs provides multiple gripping patterns to fit the amputee's needs. LN-4 Hand generously donated 10 hands which Missy and Rachel personally carried with them to Mae Sot.

Training is essential for using a prosthesis. If one does not know how it can be helpful, it is just as good on the shelf. The Care Villa men have lived for more than 10 years without one or both hands. They have loving people to help them with their activities of daily living. They may not want to wear a device. However, waking up and brushing one's own teeth, or being able to bring a fork to one's own mouth provides a sense of independence. Missy and Rachel hope that "they are not only providing these men with a limb", but that they are showing the men that "they can do even more than they thought possible".

Missy and Rachel brought cucumbers and cake for the first training session. The cucumbers were fantastic because once jabbed, they did not go anywhere until they were in the mouth. Remembering that most of the men are blind, the last thing they wanted was to discourage them by continually bringing an empty spoon to their mouths. The cake was for the tongue's delight. Cucumbers and cake - a suitable midday meal for a new hand or a pair of new hands.

Tupo lost his sight in only one eye. As he could see how to use the new prosthetic, he learned quickly and easily. The first thing Tupo wanted to do was to hold a pen in his right hand and write, something he had not been able to do for far too many years. Although the Burmese script is beautiful, it is difficult to write with its many circles and curves. With his new prosthetic hand, he happily wrote all over his left hand and in a notebook - an exciting moment.

Tupo writing Burmese again

In a place where time moves slowly and dreams seem out of reach, the gift of hands from Missy and Rachel and LN-4 Hand has brought new hope and excitement to the 18 Burmese residents of the Care Villa. Missy and Rachel: a heartfelt thanks from all of us at Clear Path!

Clear Path International Releases Annual Report

In a one-year period, Clear Path International assisted more than 9,400 landmine accident survivors, persons with disabilities and members of their families in five countries, as you can read in our 2007 � 2008 annual report.

The number of 2007 � 2008 beneficiaries is more than CPI served in its entire history since 2000. It stems largely from our new Afghanistan operation and from a record number of bomb survivors assisted in Vietnam during the period. CPI�s other program activities are in Cambodia, Thailand and just inside Burma.

In the period covered by the report, we have assisted 6,325 beneficiaries in Afghanistan, 1,679 in Vietnam, 929 in Cambodia and 538 on both sides of the Thai-Burma border.

The report covers the breadth of services CPI offers, ranging from prosthetic care and physical therapy to vocational skills training and support for sports activities. We've raised nearly $1.3 million in 2007 � 2008 and spent $878,950, or 87.2 percent, of its operating expenses on program services.
Download a copy of Clear Path International's 2007 � 2008 Annual Report here.

Young & Rubicam Creates Radio Spot to Support Landmine Victims: Tell us what you think!

All of us at Clear Path International are grateful to Young & Rubicam Malaysia (and Randy Lee!) for creating a 35 second radio spot for CPI.

Please listen to the spot below and let us know what you think in the comments section.

It is our hope to get this played on radio stations, so if you are in radio, or know of someone who is, please help us get this on the air! If you have ideas, please email us at info@cpi.org.

Listen to the ad here or right click on this link and save it to your computer!

Download the .Wav file (for radio) here.

A Certificate of Merit Awarded to Clear Path in Vietnam

DONG HA, Vietnam � I don�t often write about ceremonies. Most of the time they�re just for looks, photo ops, grip and grins. When you have an all-hands-on-deck agenda to get things done, fluff and puff can be kind of a nuisance.

But the recent presentation to CPI of the Certificate of Merit from the Provincial People�s Committee of Quang Tri was different to me. It was a real milestone in our seven-year history as a humanitarian mine action organization.

It was a chance to stop climbing for a moment, turn around and look down to see how far we�ve come with the commitment of our donors, the dedication of our staff and the unwavering support of our local partners, in particular the Quang Tri PC.

Vietnam is where we started and it�s still by far our largest program. Quang Tri, the central province most heavily affected by the war in Vietnam, is where it all began.

The Certificate of Merit recognizes international organizations for their assistance to Vietnamese people in need. In Quang Tri, we�ve served 3,204 beneficiaries and spent nearly $860,000 on survivor assistance programs. Next year, we�ll serve 1,040 in the province.

In Vietnam as a whole, we�ve served 4,664 people impacted by ordnance accidents and their family members in 14 provinces since 2001. They are people such as Do, a log trucker from Hue who lost part of his right hand and eyesight when he tried to free his truck from a muddy road two years ago and an unseen piece of ordnance war-era ordnance exploded.

Clear Path paid for his eye operation and glasses, then gave him a $250 grant to start raising rabbits in a narrow space behind his family�s house where he built a roof and cages for the breeding project.

Do�s wife is the main breadwinner, making and selling a local noodle product. But Do�s rabbit sales, which are still modest but expected to grow quickly each year, boosts the couple monthly�s income by 20 percent and strengthens the shy survivor�s self esteem.

�I feel I am contributing to my family,� he told me. �I feel useful.�

In 2001, our first full year of survivor assistance, we served 199 people. This year, we�ve served 1,428. Our assistance to new accident survivors expanded quickly to most of central Vietnam, while our comprehensive medical and socio-economic support to existing survivors (injured since the end of the war in 1975) extends to beneficiaries in four districts north and south of the former Demilitarized Zone.

Besides the growing financial backing from many grassroots donors each year, we�ve secured steady funding from the United Nations Association�s Adopt-A-Minefield campaign, the U.S. State Department and the McKnight Foundation.

Recently, we signed an agreement with the International Trust for Demining & Victims Assistance in Europe for their support in Vietnam. ITF International Relations Director Iztok Hocevar is traveling with me to Vietnam and Cambodia to see our work first-hand. He attended yesterday�s ceremony.

In 2008, we�re planning to double the number of districts where we serve existing accident survivors and families. The new districts will be Dong Ha in Quang Tri, Quang Ninh in Quang Binh, A Luoi in Thua-Thien Hue and Dai Loc in Quang Nam � all heavily affected by accidents with wartime explosives.

Our core Vietnamese staff of five � Toan, Chi, Phuong, Nhi and Duc � have done an incredible job building our program in a country where the accident victims are as scattered throughout the countryside as the ordnance that was dropped and fired during the war and where the typhoon season can make project implementation very challenging. First they worked under the direction of Kristen Leadem, then Hugh Hosman and now on their own.

What started as a small project to help a few people has blossomed into large-scale effort to serve the innocent victims of the war�s destructive legacy. Yesterday�s ceremony was an occasion to take stock in that and realize that all of us linked to CPI � donors, staff and partners � are helping nearly 5,000 people recover and get on with their lives in this country.

And that�s the reason why I am writing about the Certificate of Merit. The recognition is for all of us.

Congratulations.

Good News, Bad News For Mine Clearance In Countries Where Clear Path International Has Assistance Programs

The year 2006 held some good news and some bad news for the countries where Clear Path has assistance programs for landmine accident survivors, according to Landmine Monitor

Landmine clearance efforts in Cambodia and Afghanistan led the way in global mine removal, accounting for 55 percent of the world's total in 2006. But the use of anti-personnel devices and casualties increased sharply in Myanmar (Burma) during the year.

The below is a release from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines:

TOO MANY STATES NOT ON COURSE TO MEET MINE CLEARANCE DEADLINES

GENEVA, Switzerland � 12 November 2007 � Many states are not on course to meet their Mine Ban Treaty mine clearance obligations, according to Landmine Monitor Report 2007: Toward a Mine-Free World. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) releases the 1,124-page report at the United Nations today.

Landmine Monitor reports on the global landmine situation and scrutinizes the implementation of and compliance with the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Landmine Monitor Report 2007 is the ninth annual edition of the report.

Time is running short for 29 countries with treaty-mandated clearance deadlines in 2009 or 2010. Despite a treaty provision allowing 10 years to complete mine clearance, 14 states are almost certain not meet their 2009 deadlines: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, Mozambique, Niger, Peru, Senegal, Tajikistan, Thailand, the United Kingdom (for clearance of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas), Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

Even more seriously, despite having almost eight years to initiate clearance, France, Niger, the United Kingdom and Venezuela have failed to even begin clearance operations.

�Some countries that should have met their clearance deadlines will probably not be able to do so,� said Mr. Stuart Casey-Maslen of Norwegian People�s Aid, Landmine Monitor�s Mine Action Editor. �Both donors and mine-affected countries must work harder to ensure that countries live up to their obligations under international law.�

Demining programs in 2006 cleared 140 km2 of mined areas and 310 km2 of battle areas. A significant increase in battle area clearance was recorded over 2005, primarily in Iraq. Afghanistan and Cambodia alone accounted for over 55% of all mined area clearance in 2006. Operations resulted in the destruction of 217,000 antipersonnel mines, 18,000 antivehicle mines and 2.15 million explosive remnants of war (ERW).

Government use of antipersonnel mines declined further, with only Myanmar/Burma and Russia continuing to lay new mines. Non-state armed groups in at least eight countries used antipersonnel mines or improvised explosive devices, which is also a decrease.

A total of 5,751 mine and ERW casualties were reported in 2006, a decrease of 16% from 2005, although Pakistan, Myanmar/Burma, and Somalia recorded increased casualty rates due to conflict. Lebanon noted an approximately tenfold casualty increase. Three-quarters of recorded casualties were civilians, and 34% of civilian casualties were children. Worldwide, 473,000 survivors were identified as of August 2007.

Only 11 of 24 states with significant numbers of survivors have made substantial progress towards their 2005-2009 objectives for improving the provision of assistance and ensuring survivors� rights. Funding for survivor assistance comprises only 1% of total mine action funding. Progress toward meeting the needs and rights of survivors should be regarded as insufficient.


�Mine-affected countries and international donors must give greater priority to the physical and economic rehabilitation of survivors, as their needs are not being adequately addressed,� said Katleen Maes of Handicap International, Landmine Monitor�s Victim Assistance Editor. �These people must not be forgotten.�


Mine risk education reached approximately 7.3 million people in 63 countries in 2006-2007. Although this is an increase from 2005-2006, 13 countries urgently need to improve their mine risk education efforts. No mine risk education was recorded in 36 countries and one area affected by mines or ERW.

Of the 20 largest mine action donors, 15 provided more funding in 2006 than 2005. Funding for mine action was US$475 million in 2006, an increase of some $100 million from 2005, and the highest level ever recorded by Landmine Monitor. Much of the increase was due to emergency funding for the clearance of explosive remnants of war in South Lebanon.

�While donor states responded quickly to ERW contamination in Lebanon, what is needed is multi-year funding by national and international donors,� said Mr. Anthony Forrest of Mines Action Canada, Landmine Monitor�s Mine Action Funding Editor. �Funding levels in 2006 have set a new standard for the global commitment to mine action, against which future funding levels will be judged."

Antipersonnel mines face increased international rejection, as four more countries joined the treaty (Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait and Montenegro), bringing the total to 155. �Ten years after the negotiation and signing of the Mine Ban Treaty, the stigmatization of antipersonnel mines continues to spread. Even those who have not yet joined the treaty are largely abiding by its core obligations,� said Steve Goose of Human Rights Watch, Landmine Monitor�s Ban Policy Editor. Seven more countries completed destruction of their stockpiles of antipersonnel mines; in total, 81 States Parties have destroyed nearly 42 million stockpiled mines.

�While overall compliance with the treaty has been impressive, there have been some disconcerting developments,� said Goose. These include a UN monitoring group reporting shipments of antipersonnel mines to Somali factions by two States Parties (Eritrea and Ethiopia, which strongly deny the accusations), two states missing their stockpile destruction deadlines (Afghanistan and Cape Verde, both of which have now completed the task), and Venezuela indicating that it continues to derive military benefit from mines laid around military bases�a potential treaty violation of the prohibition on use.

The treaty prohibits the use, production, and trade of antipersonnel landmines. It requires clearance of mined areas within 10 years and the destruction of stockpiled antipersonnel mines within four years. Landmine Monitor Report 2007 reports on landmine use, production, trade, stockpiling, demining, casualties, survivor assistance and mine action funding in 118 countries and areas.

Landmine Monitor is coordinated by an Editorial Board drawn from four organizations: Mines Action Canada, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch and Norwegian People�s Aid. It constitutes a sustainable and systematic way for NGOs to monitor and report on the implementation of a disarmament treaty.

Landmine Monitor Report 2007 and related documents are available at 08:00 GMT at www.icbl.org/lm/2007on 12 November.

For more information or to schedule an interview contact:

Ms. Jackie Hansen, Landmine Monitor Project Manager, Geneva (GMT+1), Mobile +41-76-222-6968 or +1-613-851-5436, email lm@icbl.org
Ms. Simona Beltrami, ICBL Advocacy Director, Geneva (GMT+1), Mobile +39-33-3714-2251, email simona@icbl.org

Senator Leahy Honors Clear Path | Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion Perform to a Sold Out Crowd

Great news from the Vermont Office of Clear Path International! Our event with Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion was a huge success bringing in around $10,000.00 in donations and ticket sales! We sold out of over 200 tickets and it was standng room only... and those standing didn't seem to mind as Sarah Lee and Johnny put on a stellar performance.

Before the show, CPI honored one of its own... it was CPI executive Director Martha Hathaway's 10th year in mine action. In honor of this occasion, Senator Patrick Leahy spoke before Sarah Lee and Johnny took the stage and spoke to the need for a ban on landmines and praised the work of Clear Path International. He then presented Martha and me with a framed copy of comments he made about Clear Path that are now in the Congressional Record.

This was a great honor for Martha, Clear Path and me. Please see photos below and more pictures from the event can be found at this link.

Thank you Sarah Lee, Johnny and Senator and Mrs. Leahy!! I also especiallly want to thank John Goodrow from Leahy's office... he is truly an unsung hero... he fields so many calls for the Senator's attention and has done so much for so many. Thank you, John, for your good work for us and for many, many other causes. The photo below, with the Senator, was taken by John.






A special thank you to our sponsors for the event:

A Safe Place Self-Storage, Alchemy Promotional Products, Bickford Real Estate, Chandler 4 Corners, Dorset Union Store, Engel, Powell & Spivey, P.C., Express Copy Inc., Finn & Stone, Inc., Bob Gasperetti Furniture Maker, Gunterman Tennis Schools, H.N. Williams Store, The Inn at Manchester.Inn At West View Farm, Lisa Laberge Interiors, Long Ago & Far Away,Main Street Realty McWayne Jewelers, The Mountain Goat, New Morning Natural Foods, Northshire Bookstore, The Orvis Company,Perfect Wife Restaurant, Simple Coffee, Susan Sargent Designs, The Kitchen Store At J.K. Adams

Clear Path International to Assist Afghan Landmine Survivors As Part of U.S. Department of State Contract

KABUL, Afghanistan � Clear Path International (CPI), a U.S.-based humanitarian mine action nonprofit organization, has received a multi-year contract from DynCorp International to start a landmine survivor assistance program in Afghanistan on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.

With an average of 90 casualties from landmine and explosive remnants of war per month, Afghanistan is one of the world�s most �mine-affected� countries. Nearly half of all casualties die trying to reach a hospital. One in every 10 adult men is a victim of a landmine or explosive remnant of war. Women and children are also victims. Landmine and explosive remnants of war contaminate 27 of the country�s 29 provinces.

Clear Path�s subcontract with DynCorp International supports program design, led by long-time CPI consultant Kristen Leadem in Kabul, and survivors assistance services at least through 2008. It is part of larger humanitarian mine-action effort sponsored by the Department of State�s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement.

�The intention of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement program in Afghanistan is to complement existing efforts here and increase capacity in support of Afghanistan's national survivors assistance plan,� Leadem said.
Survivor assistance services range from medical care, physical mobility and rehabilitation to vocational training, income-generation, and sports activities. Capacity building services can include equipment, training and technical support to local hospitals, clinics and community-based rehabilitation centers.

Since 2000, Clear Path International has assisted nearly 4,000 survivors of accidental landmine and explosive remnants of war incidents in Vietnam, Cambodia and along the Thai-Burma border. It has also sent 65 containers of medical equipment and supplies to 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America (www.cpi.org).

The Department of State�s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (www.state.gov/t/pm/wra) is one of the world�s largest sponsors of mine clearance, risk reduction education and survivors assistance. It has directly funded Clear Path�s programs in Vietnam and Cambodia and some of the organization�s public awareness and fundraising efforts in the United States (www.abilitytrek.org).

DynCorp International is a U.S-based company that provides support services to military and civilian government institutions in such areas as aviation, infrastructure development, security and logistics (www.dyn-intl.com).


Clear Path International consultant, Ed Pennington-Ridge, examining the prosthetic leg of a landmine survivor at the Sandy Gall Afghan Appeal prosthetics workshop in Jalalabad, Nangahar Province Afghanistan. Photo: Kristen Leadem, 2007

Two New Volunteers Reach the Thai Burma Border

webmaster's note:Duane Nelson and Jody Riggs are volunteering at the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border. Here is the first, of what I am hoping will be many, of his blog posts from the border!


Duane and Jody enroute to the Thai Burma border!

Growing up within an average income family in western Canada I very literally had any opportunity before me if I was willing to look for it and pursue it. Dream it� and do it. No fear, no impossibilities, no cruelty, no guns, no poverty, no hunger, no fences, and no landmines chaining me down.

So, after enjoying a true childhood and proper education and many positive life experiences I have found a dream and a passion which I am pursuing to be a large part of my life work � prosthetics. Currently I am very fortunate to be studying Prosthetics and Orthotics in Vancouver. Within this program I found a very good friend and colleague who shares the same passions as me. Early in the year we began to talk about taking our skills to the developing world for the summer months between terms (and hopefully much more in the future).

We both wanted to do this as a way to give to those that do not have the simple luxury of �dream it� and do it�. Our talk grew into an exciting reality when we came across Clear Path InternationaI on the internet. CPI created an opportunity for us to bring our prosthetics skills to an area of the world in which fear, cruelty, guns, hunger, impossibilities, and landmines are a part of life for the men, women, and children who live here. �Here� is the Thailand/Burma border. Ethnic groups inside Burma have been violently forced from their villages by the military regime and have traveled through a jungle littered with landmines in order to reach some kind of temporary safety.

Thus far we have spent one week here on the border. It has been an overwhelming amount of emotions through my heart and mind everyday. In an instant, a landmine is detonated, forever changing the life of one man or even one child. How do things go on like this everyday in the same world I grew up in?

As prosthetists here, we have quickly learned that at this time it is essential to replace lost arms and legs. However, the greater cause is for enough to be done politically that we no longer have a job here�

CPI Packs Another Shipping Container of Medical Supplies Bound For Laos

Remember how we got a 14-box truck from Hill Moving & Storage in Poulsbo a few weeks ago? Well, I had a chance to use it for the first time this week. On Tuesday, volunteer Brent Olson and I rounded up gurneys, operating room tables, vacuum pumps, tourniquets, etc. from Seattle Surgical Repair and we stopped by Overlake Hospital in Bellevue to pick up surgical supplies. We dropped those items off at the warehouse in Georgetown and the following morning volunteer Sary Math and I loaded the truck with mattresses, casting plaster, high-end orthopedic instruments and other items for our second container to Laos.

I drove the truck up Snoqualmie Pass and down to Ellensburg on Interstate 5, then branched off on Interstate 82 to Yakima. Just beyond Yakima is a small town called Wapato where a nursing home, Emerald Care, had offered us 46 hospital beds to send to Laos. I already had gathered a bunch of other goods for the National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane, which distributes the items through a network of seven hospitals in Laos that provide orthopedic care. The new truck allowed me to bring those items over to the container that came to Wapato for the beds.

Our Veterans advisor Frank Cole and his wife Susan had orchestrated a crew to help us load the 40-foot high-cube container and the nursing home provided a forklift to heave the beds and parts in. Usually, it takes a crew of four to lift the bed frames up to the container and another crew of two or three to position them inside because donors seldom have a loading dock or a forklift. Spared our backs!

In early January, Clear Path was offered a container load for Laos through a donor to Universal Aide Society, the Canada-based nonprofit that sponsors much of our shipping and for whom we secure relief donations for its network of consignees elsewhere in the world. Through this partnership, we have shipped 65 containers to 25 countries, more than half of them to Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines).

We were introduced to the National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane through the kind folks at COPE (Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise), a group of NGOs working together to provide services for the country's many disabled, including landmine and UXO accident survivors. We met them last year on a four-day trip to Vientiane and promised we would help them with equipment and supplies.

Our second container loaded in Wapato included a number of goods they had asked for and others that are useful in any hospital, particularly the 46 hand-operated beds. The rest of the packing list with a total value of about $120,000 included 4 cast saws to cut plaster casts after bone setting or residual limb casting; 71 boxes of casting plaster; 28 boxes of gloves; 2 vacuum pumps; 4 pneumatic tourniquets; 5 wheelchairs; 2 exam stools; 1 patient lift; 1 cordless orthopedic reciprocating saw, 1 cordless orthopedic drill; and 1 hydrotherapy foot bath.

I want to thank Brent and Sary, our volunteers in Seattle; Jared and Scott from Seattle Surgical Repair; Leigh at Group Health; Chris and Marlene at Multicare Tacoma; Johnnie at Sunrise Medical; Terry and Jerry at Emerald Care in Wapato; and the Yakima crew: Frank, Susan, Steve, Ernie, Tim and Robert. Awesome job! And, of course, the Hill family for donating our great new truck.

Truckin': A Big Donation to the Clear Path Medical Supplies Program

I cannot remember how many times I have been on the highway in a rented truck or in our old cargo van doing medical pickups and drooled at the sight of an Isuzu NPR box truck.

I would watch it go by thinking that it would be the perfect vehicle for us to round up the surplus donations we get from hospitals and nursing homes, not to mention promote our work aiding landmine victims on its big high sides like a rolling billboard.

Of course as a lean nonprofit we can't really justify buying an asset like that even used. But when we lost the old cargo van, a donation from Nick's Electric on Bainbridge Island that served us well for five years, to the scrap yard the need for a new set of wheels became a bit more urgent. Still no money for it.

So after a few failed attempts to get a cargo van donated, I called Hill Moving & Storage in Poulsbo, long a supporter of all sorts of community transportation needs from the giant Rotary Auction to Katrina relief to our own Pakistan earthquake relief and more.

"Hey, Mike," I asked one of the owners after I mustered up the courage to ask for one more favor. "We're looking for a vehicle to haul our medical donations. Do you know of anyone in your business who donates their old trucks."

Mike, a somewhat stoic guy with a great heart, didn't answer right away and the silence tanked my hopes. Then he said: "We do."

He discussed some options: large semis that may be available in a few months but would be way too big for us ($100 each way on the ferry to Seattle and no place to park it). "But we have this 1995 Isuzu diesel truck we're replacing. Would you be interested in that?"

Does King Kong like Big Bananas? Yes. Yes. Yes!

To make a long Blog short, that's what we got: a 14-foot Isuzu NPR box truck complete with lift gate, ramp, furniture dolly and a tank full of diesel. A highway dream come true.

I am already using it next Friday when I take 50 mattresses, two cast saws, reciprocating orthopedic tools and a pallet of casting plaster with me to Yakima where a nursing home is donating 50 beds for shipment to Laos, our second container there.

I'll be on the road again, this time I am in the truck I have longed for since we started our program six years ago. Thanks Mike, Kay, Debbie, Steve and everyone at Hill Moving & Storage. You've come through again in a big, big way!

Clear Path Newsletter Available in PDF

The 2007 Winter/Spring CPI Newsletter is now available online. Read about our recent matching campaign with the US Dept of State, how we introduced a hippopotamus to Cambodia, and updates from Chi and Lobke, two of our representatives on the ground in Southeast Asia!

Download the PDF file here!

War Torn El Salvador On the Mend

Although I had never been to El Salvador before, there was a familiarity to being in this Central American country. Some of that came from having been to other parts of Latin America: Colombia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico. But the stronger sense of deja-vu came from having been in other war-torn countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, where Clear Path has its programs and where I visit regularly.

Just when I arrived in El Salvador last week, the newspapers were full of commemorative articles marking 15 years since the end of the civil war that deeply scarred this small nation from 1980 to 1992. The area around San Miguel, the country�s third-largest city where I attended a project conference for Rotary, was a leftist rebel stronghold. It hasn�t been a generation yet since both sides laid down their weapons.

There are reminders of El Salvador�s recent instability. Every office, store, hotel, restaurant and bank in San Miguel has armed guards with pump-action shotguns, revolvers or Uzis. But this country of 6 million people between Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua is further along in its recovery then, say, Cambodia.

The infrastructure looks fairly �together� with a lot of decent roads, plenty of newer vehicles and buses. Chain restaurants are beginning to pop up. There is even an American-style shopping mall in San Miguel. A lot of money comes into the economy from Salvadoran family members who work in the United States, from drug trafficking, coffee trade, sugar cane processing, cattle and dairy farms and a modestly growing tourism industry.

A big new seaport on the Pacific coast will form part of a new land bridge moving cargo containers to Honduras on the Atlantic because the Panama Canal has become too small for the newest generation of containerships that can carry as many as 64,000 containers.

Despite a brightening future, however, many segments of the population haven�t shared in much of the newfound prosperity.



In many ways, it�s hard to tell there was a war here now. I saw no bullet-pocked walls, no wrecked military vehicles or bomb craters like you still do in Vietnam. Neither did I see many landmine accident survivors so visible in Southeast Asia. According to the Landmine Monitor, El Salvador has been 97 percent mine-free since the mid 1990s despite a legacy of 20,000 in 425 minefields at the end of he war.
In 2005, the Landmine Monitor recorded four mine/bomb casualties, including two killed and two injured in one landmine and two incidents involving explosive remnants of war (ERW). All of the casualties were children. In 2006, no new accidents were reported. El Salvador has an existing population of nearly 3,000 landmine accident survivors. They are treated within the regular health care system, which is one of the reasons Clear Path decided to tap into its medical donations program to help some of the local hospitals.
But there are other health problems that require attention. The country has high rates of dysentery, typhoid, malaria, dengue and malnutrition. Three to four people are newly infected with the AIDS virus every day. Teenage pregnancy is endemic, despite a growing acceptance of birth control in this overwhelmingly and traditionally Catholic nation.
Our mission during the Rotary project fair I attended was to check in on San Miguel�s health care facilities. We found they need a lot of help, lacking a lot of the equipment and basic supplies to meet a growing patient demand. We visited two hospitals. In an earlier blog, I described the hospital in Ciudad Pacifica, a low-income barrio of more than 60,000 residents with little access to decent and affordable medical care.
On Saturday, we visited the �federal� Hospital Nacional San Juan de Dios. The place was crowded. As many as 700 people a day come into the emergency room, though the official bed count for the facility is only 180. The hospital handles about 6,000 deliveries per year. Often, young mothers have to double up on a bed in the maternity ward.
Here and at Ciudad Pacifica, I was lucky to be accompanied by Mike Keckler, a Rotarian who runs a medical equipment business in Modesto and makes large used medical donations on the side. The two of us and his wife Suzy identified a long list of items they need: wheelchairs, IV poles, respirators, patient monitors, delivery tables, ultrasound, gurneys and all sorts of surgical supplies. We noticed the hospital staff simply autoclaves surgical items over and over again, even disposables such as plastic drainage trays that were beginning to look warped and rubber gloves that should be tossed after a single use.
Between the Centro de Salud Josefina Vilaseca and the Hospital Nacional San Juan de Dios, Mike and I will try to put together several additional container shipments to provide the poorly paid doctors here (they make only $400 - $450 per month) with better tools and supplies. We�re lucky to have a local partner in the San Miguel Rotary club which helped us navigate last year�s container to the Centro de Salud through Customs.
By the time we�re done with the series of shipments this year and next, there should be about four or five containers� worth of new equipment and supplies at the two hospitals. I am planning to come back next year to check on the use of what we send and reassess the facilities needs.

Salvadoran Sisters Ready For "The Avalanche"

SAN MIGUEL, El Salvador � When it strikes, Sister Milagro Perez says, she and her nuns from the Order of Josefina will be ready.

No, the kind and gentle �madre� is not speaking of an earthquake, a hurricane, a tidal wave, a mudslide or some other natural disaster to which her Central American country is prone. The director of the Centro de Salud Josefina Vilaseca in Ciudad Pacifica refers to the day her little hospital�s doors will open and be inundated with patients.

�It will be an avalanche,� she says. �People from all around will travel for as much as an hour to get here.�

But the small staff will be well prepared to receive them thanks to a recently sent 40-foot container of medical equipment and supplies sent by Clear Path International and the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island.

In 2006, Clear Path gathered hospital beds, gurneys, exam tables, patient scales, crash carts, lab equipment, wheelchairs and myriad boxes of surgical supplies from Group Health and other donors in the Seattle area and sent them to San Miguel.

The Bainbridge Club paid for the shipping and provided volunteers for the loading party, while the Rotary Club of San Miguel made sure it got through Customs and made it to Sister Perez� hospital.

The immaculately tiled and tidy compound, whose construction was funded by a grant from the Spanish government, is on the outskirts of a poor barrio near San Miguel, El Salvador�s second-largest city. The barrio�s population is 64,000. The average income hovers around $150 a month.

The provincial hospital is 10 minutes away in San Miguel, but it is overflowing with patients and staff accept payments from the better-off patients, which means those who can�t afford to grease the skids wait in line all day and may still go home without receiving treatment.

Sister Perez will charge everyone the same $3 but will wave the fee for those who can�t afford it. No one will be denied treatment, the Catholic nun says. Most of the facility�s medical staff of 10 are volunteer professionals or nuns, but if the hospital opens its doors by this spring the government has committed to provide medical personnel with training and compensation.

The shipment to El Salvador is part of CPI�s medical donations program under which 64 containers of medical and other kinds of relief goods have been sent to 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The organization and the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island are already collecting items for a second container of goods possibly in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Modesto, California.

The Beds Fit Sideways | The Clear Path International Medical Supplies Donation Program

The heavy electrical bed frames from the donor in Issaquah had to go sideways on a wheeled furniture dolly to go through the door opening. It was a little extra trouble, but that was nothing new for this crew of volunteers, old hands at the movement of medical equipment and supplies for Clear Path or at least old hands at our whacky resourcefulness.

The space we�re using to store the 12 beds from Marianwood Nursing Home and many other items we�re storing for our next shipment is donated by Total Reclaim, Seattle-based recycling firm that lets us use a portion of their warehouse that used to be a large corner office.

It goes nicely with the old cargo van donated to us by a Bainbridge Island electrician and with the fact we never pay for shipping to get our items to the hospitals in the developing world. That usually gets taken care of by a great partner organization in Canada, Universal Aide Society and sometimes Rotary. We only really pay for large truck rentals and occasional day laborers to help out with a very large shipment or when I can�t find volunteers. The equipment and supplies themselves are all donated by hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in the region, even by individuals who can�t give their wheelchair, crutches or beds back to the insurance companies.


Before we moved to this warehouse, we had space at Kevin Sutherland�s location. He owns a business in commercial flooring and let us use a corner of his warehouse. Both locations have been near Boeing Field in Seattle. You can only imagine what we would have to pay for space in such a prime location close to the Port of Seattle.
Craig Lorch, who owns Total Reclaim, is a good guy. He read an article about our search for donated warehouse in the Seattle P-I and called us. At the warehouse, he also accommodates a nonprofit project collecting bicycles for Ghana. Every time I see those bikes, I think about �Emmanuel�s Gift,� a film documentary about a young disabled man who overcomes obstacles to becoming a bicycle racer, ends up winning all these sporting events and become an advocate for persons with disabilities in Ghana.
You have to consider that babies born with disabilities are routinely poisoned or left to die alone in western Africa; those who survive face a lifetime of begging on the streets and rejection as outcasts. That is a lot like the landmine survivors we support in Southeast Asia. Not that they are poisoned or left to die. The Asian countries where we work are far too family-oriented for that. But those around the family often ostracize the disabled.
Emmanuel did not want this to happen to him. Born with a malformed right leg, he shined shoes for $2 a day and refused to accept his country's superstitious shunning of the disabled. On a bicycle supplied by the California-based Challenged Athletes Foundation, Emmanuel rode almost 380 miles across Ghana and discovered his calling in life: to improve the lives of the two million disabled Ghanaians.
I watched the movie with Karen, my wife, and Niko, my eight-year-old son who is quite athletic. He loved it and still talks about it. Among all the sensory-overloading kids movies out there, this was a real gem of a film, deeply moving and inspiring.
Back at the warehouse, we were adding the beds to many other items we�re getting ready for a shipment to a hospital in San Miguel, El Salvador. The shipping is sponsored by Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island and Brent Olson, a member of the club�s World Service Committee, was on hand to, well, lend a hand. We sent this hospital a container of equipment already. But they still need more.
The community of San Miguel was one of those hit by hurricane Mitch some years ago and received a large grant from donors in Spain to build a hospital. But there wasn�t enough money to equip or supply it. In the second container we�re sending, we�ll include beds, all the machinery for a full x-ray room, casting supplies, surgical items and many other goods.
We�re collecting other items at the warehouse for the Alert Hospital in Ethiopia, which is supported by the Clinton Foundation to build a new pediatric wing. The hospital treats HIV+ patients and provide medical care for thousands of patients. For them we pediatric gurneys, an infant radiant warmer, electronic fetal heart rate monitors, breast pumps and sleeper chairs for parents and babies together. We will also be on the lookout for surgical supplies to include. Other upcoming shipping destinations include Laos, Cambodia and the Congo.
There is an ongoing stream of goods flowing through our program. Since 2001, we�ve sent 62 containers with $4 million worth of medical equipment and supplies to hospitals in 23 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Before we moved to Craig�s warehouse, we completed a series of five container shipments from a large donations we got from Group Health. That will be the subject for my next blog.