DONG HOI, Vietnam -- Twenty-seven years after the guns fell silent in Vietnam, accidents involving unexploded wartime ordnance still happen with alarming regularity in the heavily bombed region around the former Demilitarized Zone.

Increasingly, Americans are helping the bomb-affected communities and survivors of accidental explosions, most of whom weren't even born until years after the fighting stopped.

During the war, the region north and south of the DMZ in Vietnam saw some of the heaviest fighting. For years, erstwhile adversaries engaged in artillery and aerial bombardments across the 17th parallel that separated the country then. The war ended on April 30, 1975. Now, the region is the scene of an international effort to clear up unexploded ordnance and support accident survivors.

With generous funding from the Freeman Foundation in Vermont, Clear Path is clearing 110 acres on the former Dong Ha combat base in Quang Tri Province, once the forward headquarters of the 3rd Marine Division south of the DMZ. It also has Freeman Foundation support for a mobile clearance team that responds to ordnance sightings or accidents in and around Dong Ha, the largest city in the war-torn province.

During the past year and a half, demining teams trained by Clear Path's technical contractor UXB International have removed near 500 wartime explosives on the 110-acre clearance site. An additional 254 have been removed and destroyed in 62 separate mobile clearance calls.

Clear Path International is hoping to secure additional funding to continue its life-saving clearance efforts. So far, the organization has also received the support from three major sponsors and from individual donors for its aid to survivor families, including the Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation of Rochester, New York; Episcopal Relief & Development of New York and the Johnson & Widdifield Charitable Foundation of Mill Valley, Calif.

Adopt-A-Minefield, the grassroots mine action arm of the United Nations Association USA, recently selected Clear Path International as its implementing partner for survivor assistance services in Vietnam.

Since late 2000, Clear Path International has provided survivor assistance to victims and their families in Quang Tri Province. More than 350 people have benefited from its programs, which include emergency medical care, orthopedic and general surgery, prosthetics, eye care, educational support, household improvement grants and income-generating assistance. In addition, Clear Path supports local hospitals that treat and heal the victims by donating medical equipment and supplies.

Now, the organization has enough support to expand into Quang Binh Province to the north of the former DMZ and to provide emergency medical services to survivors in the provinces of Ha Tinh, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Ngai and Quang Nam. The expansion will also include the administrative district of Da Nang.

But Clear Path wants to secure additional funding to implement all of its medical and social services in the additional four provinces and in Da Nang.

Accidents resulting in death or life-long injuries occur at least once a week in the central coast region. During the past six months, accidents occurred in three of the six provinces Clear Path serves with emergency medical services.

The province of Quang Binh alone has 14,239 people who have sustained injuries from encounters with mines or unexploded bombs. The number of casualties in Quang Tri is estimated at 24,000. Injuries to one or more family members can represent a devastating blow to an entire Vietnamese household.

"It's important to note that half of our beneficiary group were injured as children, and that half of all the families affected by bomb accidents live in certifiable poverty," said Hugh Hosman, Clear Path International's in-country representative. "Physical treatment is only part of what these families need to recover from the downward economic spiral that typically follows an accident. They also need economic support to recover the overall well-being of the family."

Through their support of Clear Path International, U.S. donors are providing funding for several ordnance clearance projects just south of the former DMZ and for a program that offers Vietnamese accident survivors everything from emergency medical care to poverty alleviation support.

But more support is needed to continue the effort and make it successful, said Imbert Matthee, Clear Path International's executive director.

"We're gaining momentum because of our donors' compassion, but there are still numerous survivors, families and communities that aren't getting the attention they need," he said. "As innocent victims of a past conflict, we want to reach out to them and we could do so with more funding."

Clear Path International is a humanitarian mine action organization based on Bainbridge Island near Seattle and an East Coast office in Vermont. It has outreach projects in Vietnam, Cambodia and on the Thai-Burma border.