BO TRACH, Vietnam – It was a beautiful night when Nguyen Van Thanh, 16, walked down to the beach on April 2. The sea was a bit rough, but the sky was clear and the moon floated on the water like a ball of gold.

Thanh’s duty was to sleep on the family fishing boat and keep watch over it at night. He enjoyed it. Three years earlier, he had dropped out of school to join his father fishing off the coast of Quang Binh Province north of the former Demilitarized Zone in central Vietnam

Soon, Thanh ran into Phan Van Quan, another teenage boy who looked after his family’sfishing boat. The two went off to collect pine needles and branches. Half an hour later, they had a fire going and were joined by two younger boys who spoke longingly about the prospect of joining their fathers at sea.

With a smile on his face, Thanh put some more branches on the fire and then it happened.Just as the fire flared, they heard a very loud explosion and were thrown back. Thanh’s face felt terribly hot on the left side. He started screaming for help. The boys’ fire had accidentally set off a piece of wartime ordnance and shrapnel went flying around their campfire.

Luckily, the nearby families heard the explosion and the boys’ calls for help. They rushed them to the hospital on their motorbikes.

Thanh’s left face and shoulder were severely burned. Quan suffered multiple wounds to his head, lost his right arm and his eardrums. The younger boys got off with minor injuries.

The war that ended twice their lifetime ago again reared its head. Despite nearly three decades of peace, the number of accidents
along Vietnam’s central coast continues unabated and an alarming portion of them involve children like Thanh and Quan.

During the first half of 2004, 29 different accidents in five central coast provinces claimed 61 victims, killing 25 and injuring 36 from Quang Binh to Phu Yen. Thirty-nine, or two out of every three of the victims, were children. Clear Path International responded to each of the accidents with 15 family bereavement grants for the surviving relatives and emergency medical treatment support for all 36 of the injured accident survivors, said Hugh Hosman, the organization’s representative in Vietnam (CLICK MAP FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE).

The largest number of accidents occurred in Quang Tri Province, where Clear Path has its Vietnam office. There, accidental explosions caused accidents in seven communities, claiming 22 victims. Fourteen of the victims were children, said Tran Hong Chi, the office’s program manager.

Because of more than a decade of bombing and fighting, central Vietnam has one of the highest per capita number of unexploded bombs anywhere in the world. Economic and population growth in this rural region around the 17th parallel are expected to increase the number of encounters with the deadly explosives.

Clear Path’s support of the new accident victims led to assistance to survivors and surviving families from accidents in 2002 and 2003, Chi said. “In Phu Yen Province, where CPI made it first response, an additional 20 cases were served from a list provided by the Provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.”

Since early 2001, Clear Path has served nearly 700 accident survivors in central Vietnam with hundreds receiving multiple services beyond emergency medical care and bereavement support, such as physical mobility devices, rehabilitation, household support, scholarships and skills training. Clear Path’s programs in Vietnam are funded by donors such as Atlantic Philanthropies, Adopt-A-Minefield, Episcopal Relief & Development, Ross Foundation, Johnson & Widdifield Charitable Trust and hundreds of grassroots donors. In addition to services to individual survivors, Clear Path sends donated medical equipment and supplies to hospitals in the region.