Quảng Trị government and HDI sign a five-year agreement to support UXO survivors through "Mushrooms-with-a-Mission"

An agreement signed on 3 March 2011 will reduce poverty and bring improved living conditions for UXO victim families by expanding a mushroom-growing project in Quảng Trị Province.

Vice Chairman Nguyễn Đức Chính of the Quảng Trị Province People’s Committee and Mr. Ralph Cwerman, President of the Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI), signed the implementation agreement to expand the “Mushrooms-with-a-Mission” program, intended to benefit hundreds of UXO victim families by bringing them new opportunities for higher incomes and better living conditions by growing high quality, organic mushrooms. The project is expected to contribute to overall poverty reduction in Quảng Trị Province.

Vice Chairman Chính of the Quảng Trị Province People's Committee and HDI President Ralph Cwerman signed an agreement to continue long-term cooperation in support of “Mushrooms-with-a-Mission.

“Mushrooms-with-a-Mission” is an innovative humanitarian initiative that is introducing a sustainable approach to growing and marketing mushrooms, while neutralizing the effects of war. In addition to generating steady and stable incomes for local people, revenues from the program will fund continued UXO removal. The five year program, worth over $1.4 million USD, will be carried out by Project RENEW and local partners with financial and technical support from HDI – a U.S.-based NGO which creates government/private humanitarian partnerships linking mine action with agricultural development, poverty alleviation, and food security all over the world.

“This is a very significant moment in the long journey we started a few years ago, and now we have come to signing an agreement with well-defined expectations,” said Ralph Cwerman, HDI president. “This program has great potential not only to help the victims of UXO accidents here in Quảng Trị but also to establish a model to create sustainable source of incomes to remove UXO well into the future.”

Vice Chairman Nguyễn Đức Chính added, “Definitely this program brings opportunities for the beneficiary families to overcome the consequences of UXO and to improve their living conditions. I think they will engage very positively in the program’s implementation.”

Major activities are expected to include a mother farm with testing, spawn production, ready-to-fruit block facilities and quality control to support satellite farms operated by the growers. Inputs from the mother farm will enable families to grow high quality mushrooms that are suitable for local weather conditions and market demands. Mushrooms will be purchased, processed, organically certified, registered with a brand name and packaged and marketed domestically and internationally.

Recent surveys indicate that Quảng Trị Province has the highest UXO contamination levels of any province (83% of the land compared to 20% nationwide). About 7,075 people – 1.2% of the total population – have been victims of UXO accidents. Most UXO survivors live in difficult or disadvantaged conditions, with 40.36% of survivors needing vocational support to improve their incomes, and 39.26% needing direct assistance.

It is anticipated that the number of beneficiaries will reach up to 1,000 families over the next five years. The success of Mushrooms-with-a-Mission will mean that many new jobs will become available to UXO accident survivors in Quảng Trị Province, and the annual incomes of participating UXO survivors will be substantially increased. In the long run the project will create a steady flow of revenue to fund continued removal of UXO by Project RENEW’s EOD teams and other appropriate UXO remediation efforts.

[more news]