MINE VICTIM ASSISTANCE

The Vietnam war left a deadly legacy in Quang Tri Province, a scarred battlefield which even today has the highest number of people affected and the highest level of ERW contamination in the country. Part of Project RENEW’s challenge is to help restore the lives and livelihoods of ERW victims through assistance programs for disabled families and individuals in Quang Tri Province.

Assistance programs of Project RENEW are comprised:

1. Capacity building and medical upgrades of the local health system

Project RENEW raises funds to organize first aid, life support and trauma treatment for grassroots health workers, and to donate medical kits to local clinics and basic surgical instruments to the provincial hospital and some district hospitals. A total of 650 health workers’ skills were upgraded with first aid, basic and advanced life support and trauma care training. One hundred commune clinics received medical kits. Basic surgical instruments were provided to the provincial hospital and a number of district ones.

2. Job creation and income generation activities for ERW victim families

Funds are granted to ERW victims families to raise livestock for additional income via a micro-credit program. In Trieu Phong District, 150 UXO families benefited from a mushroom-growing program launched during 2003-2005. Twenty-five women from UXO survivor families in Cam Lo District are now raising cattle thanks to loans from a micro-credit program. In Hai Lang District, Project RENEW just dedicated a workshop for more than 45 blind people who produce brooms and bamboo toothpicks for additional income to lead independent livelihoods.

3. Rehabilitation and community integration:

Project RENEW maintains a mobile Prosthetics and Orthotics (P&O) outreach unit to provide rehabilitation services to victims residing in rural and isolated areas. More than 170 individuals with disabilities, most of them ethnic minority residents of Huong Hoa District, received rehabilitation and assistive devices in 2008-2009. With support from the Trauma Care Foundation (TCF), the P&O outreach program was expanded to provide rehabilitation services to PWDs in Dakrong District during 2010.

Officer in charge:
Mr. Dang Quang Toan
Tel: (+84) 53 3858 445 (ext.111) - Mobile: (+84) 905 129 789
E-mail: dangtoanqt@gmail.com

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