STUENG TRANG, Cambodia - Et Kim Sot was a government soldier fighting the Khmer Rouge when he stepped on a landmine in Banteay Mean Chey Province in northwest Cambodia.

Since he lost his left leg 12 years ago, the handsome, soft-spoken 33-year-old bachelor has been living in his hometown along the Mekong River in Kampong Cham Province. Since his return, he has barely set foot in his community where he is nonetheless popular with the opposite sex.

"I am ashamed to go into town," he said during an interview at his parents' home built in typical fashion on stilts above the riverbank. "I want to get around, get married and have a family, but I have no way to make a living."

Sot's prospects along with those of 100 other landmine accident survivors, however, are about to change.

Thanks to a $30,000 grant from the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis and to support from other donors, Clear Path International plans to launch a vocational skills training program for mine amputees in two districts in Kampong Cham Province. It will also conduct a second skills training program for mine survivors in the capital Phnom Penh.

With Cambodian Volunteers for Community Development as its implementing partner, Clear Path will offer classes in sewing, motorcycle repair and electronic appliances repair to students in Kampong Cham. In Phnom Penh, landmine survivors will learn English, sewing and computer skills.

Sot plans to enroll in the appliances repair course so he can learn how to fix radios and other consumer electronics. After graduation, he wants to open a small repair shop near the market in town. The program includes a loan for a tool kit so the survivors can start their own homegrown business.

Sot is among a large number of landmine victims who were injured in Kampong Cham Province or in other parts of Cambodia. Kampong Cham borders on Vietnam and was heavily impacted by Air Force bombing raids in the 1970s as the Nixon Administration tried to dislodge Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces from inside the Cambodian border. Kampong Cham was also the scene of fighting during the Vietnamese invasion in 1979, and later between government troops and Khmer Rouge guerillas. Fighting in the province ended just four years ago. During those four years of peace, Handicap International's Cambodian Mine Victim Information System reports 230 accident casualties in the entire province with 45 in Ponhea Kreak and 30 in Stueng Trang. Based on casualty rates alone, the province ranks sixth in the country among the ones most affected the presence of mines and unexploded bombs.

Two of Cambodia's 30 most-affected communes are in Kampong Cham's Stueng Trang (ranked fourth) and Ponhea Kraek (ranked fifth) districts. This is where Clear Path and CVCD will offer the skills training courses. In contrast to other parts of Cambodia, such as the western provinces near the border with Thailand, Kampong Cham's landmine survivor population has not received a great deal of attention from the international NGO community.

Sot's said his first step toward independence is to get a prosthetic from a local representative of Handicapped International. Then, he will apply for the CPI/CVCD training program.

During the interview at his parents' home, a large crowd of neighbors gathered on the veranda. Everyone agreed that the community welcomes Sot back in their midst. In the back of the crowd, a young woman was even more encouraging. "I will marry him if he gets a job," she said to laughter and cheers from the visitors.