DORSET, Vermont – Clear Path International, founded as a project of the Greater Seattle Vietnam Association in 2000, has become an independent mine action 501 C 3 nonprofit organization.

“We are extremely grateful to the Greater Seattle Vietnam Association for its unwavering and nurturing support of us as a fledgling organization,” said Imbert Matthee, co-founder and newly elected president of Clear Path’s board of directors. “It is with their encouragement that we are leaving the nest and spreading our wings.”

The independent organization will be based in Dorset, Vermont, and continue to maintain a West Coast office on Bainbridge Island near Seattle. It will be registered as an out-of-state nonprofit in the state of Washington, where it has many donors and supporters, Matthee said.

Co-founder Martha Hathaway was selected to become Clear Path International’s executive director and secretary-treasurer of the board, while her husband, co-founder James Hathaway, will serve as vice president of the board. Kristen Leadem also joins the board as a director. Additional board members will be recruited during the coming months. The organization already has a group of seasoned professional advisors.

During the two years since its founding, Clear Path International has grown from an organization with a single clearance project in central Vietnam to a mine-action entity with programs in three countries, including Cambodia and Thailand near the Burmese border. Its grassroots efforts are all privately funded by foundations, churches, service organizations and numerous individual donors.

Clear Path’s move to become an independent nonprofit is fully supported by the board of the Greater Seattle Vietnam Association, said Son Michael Pham, that group’s president.

“We are very proud of the successful growth of Clear Path International and we will continue to lend our support for its mission and programs as it has become independent,” he said. “We are certain that our organizations will mutually benefit from our ongoing partnership and we offer our congratulations to our friends at Clear Path International.”

Dedicated to a no-nonsense hands-on partnership with survivor communities in Southeast Asia, Clear Path International is aiding hundreds of accident victims from the time they are injured to the day they reintegrate into society as productive contributors.

“Thanks to the compassionate support of our sponsors, the number of mine survivors, families and communities who benefit from our humanitarian mine-action programs continues to grow,” Matthee said.
Clear Path’s services to survivors include emergency medical care, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, eye care, prosthetics, physical rehabilitation, educational scholarships, income-generating assistance and vocational skills training. Its hospital donations, shipped in 40-foot containers, have gone to nearly a dozen hospitals that treat and heal mine survivors. Its ordnance removal efforts have included the largest bomb clearance project of its kind by an American organization in Vietnam. Its work has been applauded by the U.S. State Department and endorsed by two of the most prominent U.S. Senators, John McCain and Patrick Leahy.