In the early years, CPI cleared more than 500 pieces of UXO from 110 acres on the former Dong Ha combat base once home to the Third Marine Division, the largest clearance project of its kind by a U.S.-based non-profit. Once the clearance was done and the land was again usable for the construction of homes and other community buildings in Ward 8, the poorest neighborhood in Dong Ha, CPI sponsored the building of an elementary school for 400 children on the site.

Clear Path has collected enough medical equipment, surgical supplies and assistive devices worth millions of dollars to fill 30 forty-foot ocean containers that were sent to 20 hospitals in northern and central Vietnam as part of its program to strengthen local health care providers to treat trauma patients, including landmine accident survivors.

As a result of its provision of victim assistance, CPI was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Province of Quang Tri in 2008 for its outstanding work in that war-torn province. Now in our eleventh year of service delivery to UXO-impacted individuals in Vietnam, CPI has successfully established long-term positive relationships with the provincial government offices and staff. These relationships help CPI to be an effective advocate for the beneficiaries in the areas of disability awareness and to facilitate proactive solutions to the employment, education, health care and psycho-social issues facing persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Approximately 6 percent of Vietnam’s population is disabled. The unemployment rate for Vietnamese PWDs is approximately 30 percent greater than that of persons without disabilities. PWDs struggle to attain economic independence and social acceptance. Improved access to employment opportunities, education, health care, and medical support is a viable approach to improving the lives of PWDs in Vietnam.

Located in Dong Ha City, Clear Path has a staff of four full-time and three part-time employees in the central region and a data base of thousands of beneficiaries (landmine and UXO –accident survivors), many of whom have received varied services for at least three years and some for as long as six years.

All of Clear Path’s beneficiaries are impacted by ERW accidents, either directly or indirectly through death or injury of a family member. Victims suffer loss of limb, eyesight, hearing, general mobility and/or psycho-social impacts. All struggle to support their families, to regain and maintain their dignity, and to be an active, inclusive member of their community.

Local government entities are not in a position to subsidize emergency medical care for poor families, offer reliable transportation for urgent and long-term treatment, handle complicated or specialized surgery, support the special educational needs of landmine victims, offer vocational training opportunities, or provide the devices and therapy these handicapped victims need to face the challenges of reintegration.

The emotional and economic trauma of surviving a major accident, such as UXO explosions, tends to send already marginalized families into a downward financial spiral from which they often do not recover. This is why Clear Path International implements a comprehensive medical and socio-economic reintegration program to assist the accident survivors as they regain their ability to survive and thrive.

Briefly described, scrap metal collectors use metal detectors, wandering through sandy areas once occupied by military installations or weaving through thick vegetation to reach areas which were once regular targets for massive B52 bombing raids. They look for anything made of metal – a rusty chunk of steel from a broken bomb case, a corroded brass ring from a rotating band of a projectile, or a smashed-up aluminum fin tail off a mortar round. Everything is picked up. At the end of the day, it is sorted at scrap dealer shops. Steel goes with steel, brass with brass, and cash is paid by the weight. The risk of explosion is 50/50. The lure of immediate cash for supplemental income is too significant to ignore.

More and more frequently, the lure of scrap metal income results in new UXO accidents. Clear Path follows the cases from the beginning. Family members are reassured by CPI commitments to cover medical expenses. In addition, CPI provides nutritional support for the patients, a care taker during the treatment periods, and transportation costs. For fatalities, CPI staff visit each family with their condolences and assist the family with a bereavement grant which helps cover the cost of the funeral for the poor and unprepared families.

CPI’s next consideration is to provide economic assistance. In two recent accidents, one families' breadwinner was killed, while the breadwinner in the second accident lost both hands. CPI conducted assessment interviews to determine support appropriate to each family’s specific circumstances. The widow was assisted with pig raising as it provides an income-generating option while she takes care of her small daughter. In the other family the accident victim lost use of his hands. The best solution was to turn the family's living room into a small grocery shop. Kind neighbors purchasing items from the store deposit their payments into a tin box at his bed and take their goods. CPI helped to set this up with a capital grant.

Despite these accidents, life goes on for their family members. The third follow-up grants to these families were scholarships for the children. Six out of the total seven children are of school age, and currently attending classes. CPI’s implementation of a private donation from a U.S. veteran helped pay the school fees for these children.

Although the primary purpose is to assist the affected families during their financial crisis, the reality is that the timely support and assistance always provides significant psychological encouragement. These families assumed that these accidents were a result of their own bad luck and that they would have to bear the consequences on their own. They never thought anyone would show up to lend a helping hand in their most desperate time.