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.

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.

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.

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.

In Afghanistan, Goats Provide Livelihood for Landmine Survivors and More

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - What they say about sheep in New Zealand may not quite be true for goats in Afghanistan. They don't outnumber people here.
But the importance of the animal to individual families' survival in this arid mountainous country can not be underestimated and the gift of a goat can provide for many in a village.

In Clear Path's first survivor assistance project outside Kabul, 18 beneficiaries in the eastern city of Jalalabad received goats and animal husbandry training from CPI's local Afghan partner, Afghan Disabled & Vulnerable Society (ADVS).
Thirteen of the recipients were landmine accident survivors, two were female heads of disadvantaged households and three were Afghans with other disabilities. The $6,000 project was funded by the U.S. State Department's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement through a contract with DynCorp to whom Clear Path was a subcontractor until early August. Now, CPI receives direct funding from State for its work in Afghanistan.

The beneficiaries, which included the head of ADVS, Said Husin Sadaqat, himself disabled, all reside in villages of the Qarghaye District, Laghman Province. ADVS employed a local veterinarian to provide technical support to the group in the form of milk production methods. Every six months, a female kid will be received from the existing owners and given to new beneficiaries.
More than 60 families (at least 125 people) will benefit from access to tea, yoghurt and cheese from the animals' milk. The beneficiaries will be able to sell these products in their local markets, strengthening their income from a meaningful economic pursuit.

ADVS was established in 1994 to assist Afghans in need. The director, bound to a wheelchair, has provided vocational skills training and income-generating projects for more than a decade.

Clear Path International now Independent, Expanding in Afghanistan

Waiting in a corridor between consultations, a young land mine victim looks at a new prosthetic leg propped up on a bench. Photo by Alixandra Fazzina

KABUL, Afghanistan - After two years as a subcontractor here, Clear Path International is now a full-fledged independent grant recipient of the U.S. Department of State with a growing vision for aid to landmine accident survivors and people with disabilities in Afghanistan.

Its newly independent status means Clear Path is also ready to begin accepting private-sector grants and contributions for its work in one of the world's most mine-contaminated countries. The program, which has already assisted more than 9,000 Afghans with disabilities, is now CPI's largest victim assistance effort, followed by Vietnam, Cambodia and the Thai-Burma border.

Clear Path's work in Afghanistan, which ranges from providing the traditional prosthetics, physical therapy and income-generating support services, is on the cutting edge of socio-economic support of landmine accident survivors.

A good example of its innovative approach is the creation of the Afghan Mine Action Technology Center, which employs disabled deminers and landmine accident survivors to fabricate tools and equipment for sale to demining professionals with revenues from the center going into medical and social services for survivors. The center was the brainchild of Elegant Design & Solutions (EDaS), a former CPI contractor.

Since it started in Afghanistan in 2007, CPI has been a subcontractor of DynCorp International., which holds a prime contract with the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement for a range of humanitarian mine action services.

Under its subcontract with DynCorp, CPI received nearly $3 million dollars to provide assistance to landmine accident survivors. Now the door is open for CPI to receive millions more to provide victim assistance services in Kabul, Jalalabad, Mazar-E-Sharif and parts of eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.

As part of its new status, CPI set up its own office in Kabul and registered as a non-governmental organization with the government of Afghanistan. The program is managed jointly by CPI Finance Manager Peter Albertsson and CPI Co-founder Kristen Leadem. The Kabul office has a staff of three Afghan nationals and agreements with half a dozen Afghan implementing partners.

Landmine Surivivor Farmers' Co-op in Cambodia Doubles in Size

SEAM VILLAGE, Battambang Province - Life was a struggle for Ream Luong before he joined the farmer's cooperative set up by Clear Path International and its partner in one of Cambodia's most heavily mined regions. This spring, the partners doubled the co-op to 150 households from 75, expanding an enterprise that's helping many landmine accident survivors succeed as rice farmers.

Ream Luong, Photo by Pat Roe, Clear Path International

Disabled by a landmine accident when he was 23 and now going on 50, the father of three whose wife died of a sudden illness was deep in debt to loan sharks. Every year, he had to borrow to invest in his crop and, because he couldn't store his rice, he had to sell it at harvest time when prices are rock bottom.

The co-op, aimed at providing a socio-economic support structure for landmine-disabled farmers and disadvantaged members of their communities, has turned that around for the below-the-knee amputee from Paum Takeav Village not far from the Thai border.

Thanks to low-interest spring-time micro loans, agricultural training, better crop seed and a chance to store his rice at the partners' rice mill, Ream is now virtually debt-free except for what he owes the project. He and his three children are now among the 750 direct and indirect beneficiaries of the farmers' co-op, which issued $30,000 in $200 loans to the members at an interest rate of 2 percent per month and provides many other services to the households.

Many members of the farmers' cooperative have independently organized their own rice banks. The members each contribute a portion of paddy rice to the bank at the harvest time. One member is elected to chair the rice bank and is responsible for tracking contributions, withdrawals and loan repayments. As the year progresses, if a member needs rice due to an emergency or unforeseen situation, they may borrow from the bank. The loan recipient will then repay the loan in rice with interest, thereby increasing the total amount in reserve.

While CPI does not officially organize or manage these rice banking systems, this sort of community self-reliance is encouraged and discussed in community workshops. Additionally, CPI offers free storage in the warehouse for members who wish to join such a program. Currently, there are 38 members who have established a rice bank, and there is 3,050 kilograms of rice in the bank.

Back To School: Nearly 500 Vietnamese Landmine Families Receive Clear Path International Support to Send Their Children Back to School

DONG HA, Central Vietnam - Mothers get teary-eyed when their kids return to school after the summer.

But the tears Tran Phuong Nhu's mother shed outside her daughter's classroom were not from a typical sense of pride and separation. As she watched the eight-year-old girl go inside wearing her best uniform, she could not help think of her husband who is still in critical condition at the Quang Tri General Hospital from a landmine accident that
happened in late July.

Tran Phuong Nhu at the scholarship granting ceremony

The third grader was among 52 children from landmine-affected families in Dong Ha town who received special scholarships from CPI at the school on Aug. 21 as the organization conducted the last round of assistance ceremonies at the start of the new school year. Sadly, Tran Phuong Nhu was a last-minute addition.

In all, 482 students in nine districts from four provinces north and south of the former Demilitarized Zone at the 17th parallel received CPI scholarships this year. The scholarship grants are for elementary to high school students who were injured by accidents with unexploded ordnance (UXO) or, as in Tran Phuong Nhu's case, whose family members sustained injuries from such accidents. UXO accidents still happen almost every week in central Vietnam.

Each scholarship grant worth about $35 covers most of the minimum tuition even the poorest families have to pay the public schools. CPI also awards special uniform and materials packages to mine-affected students with the best grades. One hundred and twenty nine, or more than a quarter, of the 482 students this year received such gifts in recognition to their tireless efforts to overcome their challenges at home and at school.

Nguyen Hong Hoa from Hiep Duc district, Quang Nam province, was one of the "honor" students. The 15-year-old boy lost two legs and an arm in 2007 when he was in 6th grade. His education was interrupted and everyone was afraid that he wouldn't recover from the psychological wound. But when Hoa went back to school a year later he did very well and gained an "excellent student" title.

Students from Gio Linh district, Quang Tri province and their parents gathering at the event.

CPI's educational scholarship program began in 2001 to a few newly mine-affected students in Quang Tri province. Since then, the activity has become an annual event. To date, 3,130 scholarships have helped families reduce their burden and nourish their hope of a better future thanks to their children's ability to keep returning to school.

Landmine accident survivor Nguyen Quoc Tich and his eldest son, Vuong, ride to the ceremony to collect a scholarship for Vuong's younger sister.

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!

Dutch Charity "Stichting Mensenkinderen" Awards $140,000 to Clear Path International

HARDERWIJK, Netherlands - The Dutch charity "Stichting Mensenkinderen" (www.mensenkinderen.nl) has given a grant for 100,000 Euro ($140,000) to Clear Path International for its humanitarian mine action work in Vietnam and Cambodia.

About two-thirds of the grant will be used to help match $127,000 in funding for Vietnam from the U.S. Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement, while the remainder will be used as a match for the $50,000 provided by WRA for CPI's rice mill enterprise for landmine accident survivors in Cambodia.

"Several thousand landmine victims, family members and persons with disabilities will benefit from the grants by Mensenkinderen and State," said Imbert Matthee, CPI's executive director. "It means that our much-needed work in Southeast Asia can go on in a difficult fundraising environment. We're extremely grateful for this."

Stichting Mensenkinderen (literally translated as "the Foundation for Children" or "the Foundation for Human Children") was founded in 2003 by television producer Sipke van der Land. Since it began, the organization has focused on providing food, shelter, vocational training and other services to disadvantaged, disabled and orphaned children in Albania, Moldavia and Bulgaria.

The last two years, the charity has expanded its interest to include other regions of the world. In 2007 and 2008, it gave donor-advised grants to CPI for its work along the Thai-Burma border.

In Vietnam, the Mensenkinderen funds will be used to continue Clear Path's aid to landmine accident survivors and family members in the central region (north and south of the former Demilitarized Zone) where they receive everything from emergency medical care and prostheses to home improvement and income-generating grants.

In Cambodia, the Dutch grant money will go to help expand CPI's current network of farmers' coops and to provide services to amputee farmers in the poor communities around its rice mill in Battambang province on the border with Thailand.

Like Clear Path, Stichting Mensenkinderen has a small staff and office while relying heavily on volunteers.

US State Department Funds Clear Path International Programs in Vietnam & Cambodia

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal & Abatement has approved matching grants totaling $177,000 for Clear Path International's humanitarian mine action programs in Vietnam and Cambodia.

The largest grant of $127,000 will be used to fund efforts that assist survivors of accidents with landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in central Vietnam. The second grant of $50,000 will be used for CPI's rice mill enterprise for landmine survivors in Battambang, Cambodia, where its beneficiaries receive training, microcredit and crop processing services.

The two grants are matched by financial contributions from the private sector, including the McKnight Foundation of Minneapolis, the Johnson & Widdifield Charitable Trust, the Seattle-based law firm Marler Clark and the Dutch charity Stichting Mensenkinderen.

"At a time when it's challenging to raise money from private-sector sponsors, the government's steady and ongoing support of our work helps sustain vital survivor assistance programs," says Imbert Matthee, CPI's executive director. "It also inspires private charities to keep giving despite the economic downturn."

At least 1,000 landmine accident survivors, their family members and disadvantaged members of their communities will benefit from the two grants in the remainder of 2009 and the first part of 2010, Matthee says.

In Vietnam, aid to survivors comes in the form of emergency medical care, prosthetics, physical rehabilitation, income-generating assistance, animal husbandry programs, scholarships and sports activities.

In Cambodia, CPI and its local partner, Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development, will expand the cooperative of amputee farmers, boost micro-credit lending, offer training, mill and sell their rice.

CPI Starts Year of the Buffalo with Pig-breeding Project For Landmine Accident Survivors in Vietnam's Gio Linh

GIO LINH, CENTRAL VIETNAM -- In the new lunar Year of the Buffalo, Clear Path in Vietnam began its activities supporting landmine and bomb accident with a pig-raising project in the coastal commune of Gio Hai in Quang Tri Province's Gio Linh District.

Gio Linh District is among the spots in central Vietnam most heavily contaminated by unexploded ordnance (UXO). Fourteen of its 20 communes have confirmed or suspected contamination levels and it�s the site of regular accidents. In humanitarian mine action �speak,� Gio Linh is considered 98 percent contaminated.
Twenty of Gio Hai commune's 44 poorest households affected by bomb accidents were selected for the pig-breeding project by a Clear Path outreach worker through home assessment visits and interviews probing their capacity to succeed in the program. CPI works closely with the local People�s Committee.


Project beneficiaries review their commitment documents before submitting them to CPI. (Photo by Tran Hong Chi)

Last year, Gio Hai was classified by the government as a "Commune Faced with Extreme Difficulties." Fishing is the main source of income here. Only men go out in small boats to fish along its shore. In the sandy fields behind the dunes, peanuts and sweet potatoes struggle to grow against the elements: frequent floods in the monsoon season and sand moving around in the dry season. These tough conditions explain why half the people here don�t have steady jobs. According to the People's Committee, hundreds of people from Gio Hai leave every year for seasonal jobs elsewhere.
Vo Quang Kha, 42, was selected as a project participant from Gio Hai's Village 4. Kha lost his left leg almost up to his hip when he was only 9. A cluster bomb exploded when he was raking trash in his schoolyard. For long, Kha struggled with his disability and living conditions. Kha lives in a household of three generations and seven people: His parents, who are in their seventies, his wife and their three children ages 14, 13 and 10. Kha's wife is the family's sole breadwinner. For this reason and despite his old age, Kha's mute father still goes out fishing at times to share the workload with his daughter-in-law. His oldest son, who weighs just 44 pounds, looks like a primary school boy. With so many disabled, weak and dependent members, the family barely subsists. Seven people share less than US $2 for food every day, not counting rice.



Mr. Kha enjoys a ride with CPI to attend training course. (Photo by Tran Hong Chi)

Participating in this pig-raising project, beneficiary households like Mr. Kha's receive training from a district agriculture officer; a CPI grant ranging from $41 to $59 to upgrade their old pigsty or build a new one. And, each household receives $6 to vaccinate their new piglets. And the piglets? CPI gives each household a $70 loan to buy three to four piglets without interest. The households have to pay back the loan after a year. They can make two annual installments: after six months and after a year. This is called a revolving loan fund because the money paid back by the families is used for new candidates in new project areas.

Kha's family once raised a sow. When it got old they sold it, but not for enough to buy a new breeding pig. That was almost two years ago. Now with the first grant from CPI, Kha has already put a new roof on his old pigsty and plans to build a new section. He and his wife intend to buy a sow of about 20 lbs for breeding and three piglets to raise for meat in the short term.
Despite the modest size of the grant, this assistance opens new opportunities for families like Kha's. It creates work for people with disabilities and boosts their household income. Kha is a confident participant in the project, saying that his wife has experience raising pigs and CPI's support will help kick-start his household economy. For Kha, the program is also of moral support to him, as he has never received any assistance before as a bomb accident survivor.

Started as a pilot project in Vinh Linh district (Quang Tri Province) in 2004, the pig-raising model has proven to be a success. After Vinh Linh and Cam Lo, Gio Linh is the third district where CPI brings this assistance to households affected by accidents with unexploded ordnance (UXO).

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.

Clear Path International Beneficiaries in Vietnam Become Deminers Thanks to Mines Advisory Group

DONG HA, Vietnam -- As part of its partnership with Clear Path International, Mines Advisory Group in Vietnam has started to recruit CPI-supported landmine accident survivors or their family members to train them as clearance technicians.

The latest person to benefit from this project is 31-year-old Mrs. Tran Thi Hanh from Hoan Cat Village, Cam Lo District, Quang Tri Province. The mother of two children, aged six and 11, has been looking after them and her husband, Nguyen Van Nam, 33, who was injured while collecting war scrap metal two years ago. Mr. Nam still has metal shrapnel embedded in his body from a mortar fuse that exploded in 2005 while he was digging it up. He also received shrapnel wounds to his hands, eyes and chest, and is no longer able to work for a living.

CPI and MAG condemn the dangerous economic pursuit of reclaiming wartime ordnance for resale as scrap metal but some financially marginal Vietnamese families cannot resist the instant cash they can earn from their freelance activities. Although survivors such as Mr. Nam aren�t considered �innocent� victims of unexploded ordnance accidents, their family members are.



�My husband was a scrap collector and can now no longer work as a normal person,� says Mrs. Hanh. �He just does the easy house work, grows sweet potatoes and takes the children to school.�

She added: �Before his accident, he used to go out with his detector at 6am and return home at 6pm after selling the scrap metal.�

From this potentially lethal occupation, Mr. Nam brought home VND30,000 (USD1.87) a day, which was added to the income Mrs. Hanh made from in farming. This supplumentaryl income dried up shortly after Mr. Nam was injured despite CPI�s coverage of his medical bills.

As the main breadwinner of the Hanh family, Mrs. Hanh was selected by CPI for the MAG�s deminer recruitment program. Where possible, MAG attempts to recruit landmine accident survivors as deminers but because of some of the survivors� injuries and the physical requirements of work in a Mine Action Team (MAT), they aren�t able to take part in the training course. Sometimes, they can be employed in administrative positions.



�After the training, I returned home and in September MAG called me and offered me a job,� she said. �I love this work and will serve MAG until the end.�

Mrs. Hanh is one of eight CPI beneficiaries recommended to MAG for possible recruitment and training as professional deminers. From the list, MAG selected two for whom it had positions on its clearance teams.

Nineteen-year-old Duong Van Duy is another MAG recruit brought forward by CPI. Duong is the brother of a landmine accident survivor from a six-member family in Quang Trung Commune, Quang Trach District in Quang Binh Province.



�When I knew that I would be recruited by MAG I was so happy,� he says. �I was no longer unemployed. I will have a job�a good job and I want to share my happiness with my brother.�

Though he was the youngest in the MAG demining class, Duong turned out to be the best student, according to his supervisor, Mr. Tran Xuan Thang, who also said the young recruit �will be a good addition to our 100-strong technical workforce.�

Duong helped make his own community safer. MAG conducted mobile responses to sightings of unexploded ordnance in 9 out of the 15 communes in Quang Trach District, removed and destroyed 5,879 items, and cleared 3,400 square meters of land thus making it possible for new medical clinics, kindergartens, schools and homes to be built on de-contaminated land.

Clear Path Featured in Journal of Mine Action

The latest edition of the academic periodical the Journal of Mine Action published by James Madison University features a cover photo and an in-depth article about the work of Clear Path International in central Vietnam.

Co-authored by Ari Perlstein, a medical student at the Oregon Health & Science University, and CPI co-founder Imbert Matthee, the article highlights the persistent problem of UXO (unexploded ordnance) accidents in a region which ranks among the most mine-affected in the world. It also outlines the work Clear Path has undertaken since 2000 to assist landmine accident survivors, their families and their communities in the provinces north and south of the former Demilitarized Zone.

With the help of its donors and supporters in the United States, Clear Path has been able to serve nearly 5,000 landmine accident survivors in 14 of Vietnam's central coast provinces -- an effort that won the organization a Certificate of Merit from the People's Committee of Quang Tri, one of the region's most heavily affected provinces.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs reports that nearly 40,000 people were killed and more than 66,000 injured between the end of the war in Indochina in 1975 and 2006 with many of these accidents occurring along the central coast. The article analyzes accident data for the region from the year 2007 and breaks it down by type, location, age, gender, ethnicity and injury to give a cross-section of today's impact on daily life from these Explosive Remnants of War.

The Journal of Mine Action is a highly regarded publication of the university's Mine Action Information Center in Harrisonburg, Va., a leader in the academic discipline that concerns itself with the professional mitigation of landmines and unexploded ordnance in current and former war zones.

Co-author Ari Perlstein spent six months at the Da Nang Orthopedic & Rehabilitation Center, one of the Clear Path's largest medical partners treating landmine accident survivors in Vietnam.

Read the story here: http://www.maic.jmu.edu/

Thai Burma Border Landmine Survivor Assistance Program Page Updated

We have updated our Thai-Burma border project page. Check it out here.

YouTube: Myanmar's Landmine Survivors at the Mae Tao Clinic

A video of the clinic we support on the Thai Burma border and an interview with Dr. Cynthia (known as the Asian Mother Theresa) who runs it.

You can read more about our program here.

Reuters: Landmines threaten Iraqis and hamper development

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Up to 25 million land mines, or almost one for every Iraqi, remain buried in thousands of minefields across Iraq and are hampering development of rich oil deposits, officials said on Wednesday.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the mines were spread across about 4,000 minefields left across Iraq after the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, the first Gulf War in 1991 and the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

"We have been busy with the biggest threat against our existence, which is terrorism ... so the many mines did not get the attention they deserved," Dabbagh said at a conference with United Nations officials in Baghdad on the problem.

"For every Iraqi citizen there is a mine that could kill him at any moment," he said.

Iraqi Environment Minister Nermeen Othman said she had been appointed by the government to lead efforts to clear Iraq of land mines.

"Because of the contamination by land mines, Iraq has lost access to thousands of hectares of farm lands and been unable to invest in its oil fields," Othman said.

David Shearer, U.N. deputy special representative for humanitarian, reconstruction and development in Iraq, said the heavy contamination of land mines had many different effects.

"The importance of this explosive material is not just about the damage it can do to ordinary people, it also impacts the economic development of Iraq itself," he said.

Read the rest of this story here.

Landmines and UXO kill and maim hundreds in Afghanistan in 2007

Landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) killed 143 and wounded 438 people in different parts of Afghanistan in 2007, according to UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) statistics.

Most victims are males aged 1-26, largely from the insurgency-affected southern provinces where the worsening security situation has hampered de-mining activities.

The number of people killed by landmines and other explosive remnants of war saw a 13.2 percent increase in 2007 over 2006 but the overall casualty rate (the combined number of dead and injured) dropped by over 29 percent, UNMACA's findings indicate.

Landmines, UXOs and AXOs killed 124 and wounded 697 Afghans in 2006.

Read the rest of this article 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.