PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Chak Khom just finished making himself a new shirt and wears it proudly. The 31-year-old landmine victim is among 40 students learning vocational skills under Clear Path International's new pilot project in partnership with Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development. It is designed to boost employment opportunities for accident survivors in Cambodia. Chak is taking sewing classes and English. The program also includes computer skills training. When he graduates, he hopes to start a small business in his village near the border with Vietnam.

Clear Path International paid for the vocational training program with donations and grants from donors in the United States. Next year, CPI wants to expand the program and offer classes to more than 100 accident survivors in Kompong Cham, one of the most mine-affected provinces in Cambodia. This winter, we're also raising funds to continue our survivor assistance efforts in central Vietnam. And, with your support, we want to build a special medical ward at a clinic in Thailand for Burmese refugees who have been injured by landmine accidents.

On behalf of Chak and the other accident survivors we serve in Southeast Asia, THANK YOU for what you have already done and thank you for considering doing more. We are grateful to be a channel for your compassion.

Meanwhile, clearance work on the historic Dong Ha Combat Base continues. Fifty-seven percent of the 110 acres has been cleared and 257 unexploded bombs have been destroyed. Once cleared, the area will be developed for much-needed housing, organic farming and aquaculture.