NEW YORK – Clear Path International has received five major new grants totaling $176,000 for its landmine survivor assistance and hospital support program in central Vietnam.

The largest, for $100,000, is from The Atlantic Philanthropies, an international philanthropic organization. The grant is earmarked to cover operational expenses related to Clear Path’s medical assistance program for landmine and bomb accident survivors across 10 provinces on Vietnam’s central coast.

The Atlantic Philanthropies’ grant will allow Clear Path to expand its outreach to survivor families in this war-torn part of Vietnam, help build local prosthetics and physical rehabilitation capacity, and increase its equipment support to local hospitals that serve trauma patients. During the past three years, Clear Path has assisted more than 650 victims of accidental explosions in Vietnam.


The second and third grants come from the Adopt-A-Minefield program of the United Nations Association USA, which has already funded Clear Path’s work with a previous grant of $50,000. One new $30,000 grant from AAM will be used to expand the number of survivors who receive medical or social services from Clear Path. The other, for $25,000, will help create a mobile survivor outreach team, whose members will be mine survivors themselves and facilitate services to victims in central Vietnam using a fleet of motorcycles. Many survivors in this rural region live in remote villages.



The fourth grant for Clear Path’s survivor assistance program in Vietnam is a $16,000 gift from the Widdifield & Johnson Charitable Trust in Mill Valley, Calif. The gift is part of $31,000 grant that also supports Clear Path’s efforts in Cambodia and on the Thai-Burma border. It is Clear Path’s third grant from the trust since 2001. Finally, an anonymous donor has provided a $5,000 grant to CPI, also for its work in Vietnam.

“We are extremely grateful for the new and continued support we receive from our major donors to help restore hope to mine survivors in Vietnam,” Clear Path President Imbert Matthee said. “It underscores the need among these impoverished families and the difference our programs are making in their everyday lives.”