VICTIM ASSISTANCE (VA)

Donor visiting a VA grant recipient

With a total of 7,024 people in Quang Tri Province killed or injured by ERW since the war ended, the need for assistance to ERW survivors is enormous. Project RENEW has responded with a VA program to lessen the impact and long-term damage of ERW accidents on local victims and their families, help them stablize their lives, gain mobility independence, and earn self-sustaining livelihoods.

Capacity building and medical facilities upgrading
To enhance the capacity of the local health system’s trauma response and emergency medical treatment, the VA program has facilitated training for more than 650 medical workers at the district and commune levels who have been qualified on first aid, basic and advanced life support, and trauma treatment. So far 41 physicians have been certified to teach trauma emergency response to other medical workers working at the village level.

Equipment upgrades have been an VA priority, with 100 commune clinics in the districts of Huong Hoa, Dakrong, Cam Lo, Vinh Linh, Gio Linh, and Hai Lang provided with medical kits containing 45 key items for emergency response; 109 village medical workers provided with 15-item medical kits; and 500 medical kits donated to Trieu Phong Health Care Division for first aid services. The provincial hospital and a number of district hospitals have also been provided with surgical instruments.

Job creation and income generation for ERW victim families
Funds have been provided to 150 families in Trieu Phong District to participate in an innovative mushroom growing project, generating substantial incomes for these formerly impoverished victims.  Another 160 families in Hai Lang District have received money to grow feed grass and raise cows. Since June 2008, Project RENEW has provided micro loans for a number of ERW victim families in Hai Lang, Trieu Phong and Cam Lo districts.

Project RENEW has supported Hai Lang District’s Blind Association with vocational training for 25 blind people who are ERW victims. Making brooms, bamboo tooth-picks, and other items, these people have begun to generate their own incomes and lead independent lives.

Rehabilitation and community reintegration
A mobile Prosthetics and Orthotics (P&O) outreach unit has been launched to provide professional diagnosis and artificial limbs to ERW survivors who live in remote areas and are unable to come into Dong Ha Town, where the province’s only P&O workshop is located. Since its launch in March 2008, the P&O outreach program has provided prosthetic and orthotic devices and rehabilitation services to 171 victims in rural areas of the province. 

An ERW survivor receiving services from the P&O outreach program

An additional 345 disabled persons have received limbs, braces, or other devices at the Rehabilitation Department of the provincial hospital in Dong Ha. Project RENEW is co-sponsor of a number of annual cultural and sporting events for persons with disabilities.

Officer in charge:
Mr. Dang Quang Toan
Mobile: (+84) 905 129 789
E-mail: dangtoanqt@gmail.com

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