US aid Agency Assists Victims of Unexploded Ammunition

Vietnam News December9, 2005 QUANG TRI — Thirty year-old Le Van Phuc is unlikely to forget the morning in 1992 when he was seriously wounded in Dong Ha Town after a landmine he had been digging up in his garden exploded. Phuc fell into a coma and was rushed to hospital. The mine crushed a kidney and wounded his intestines. His lungs and four fingers were also badly damaged. Worst of all, two fragments perforated his vertebrae, paralysing Phuc’s left side and kept him bedridden for seven years. He underwent six operations. "I felt sad at that time because I was the main bread winner in a six-brother poor family," Phuc recalled. Phuc’s life changed in 2000 when Clear Path International (CPI), an American-based landmine and bomb removal organisation, helped him through its unexploded ordnance (UXO)/landmine accident survivor assistance programme.