5/13: CHAMPS school and Peace Trees

For the past 4 years, we have been fund raising for Peace Trees, a non profit that works to clear land mines and other unexploded ordnance (UXO), as well as support land mine victims. Each year we have visited Peace Trees Vietnam, about two hours north of Hue in Quan Tri province, the most heavily mined area in Vietnam due to its location just south of the 17th parallel - the dividing line of North and South Vietnam. (During the American War, there were more bombs dropped on Quan Tri province alone than all the bombs used during WWII, including the atomic weapons used in Japan.) Peace Trees started by clearing land mines and planting trees in the crater. They have removed almost 60,000 ordnance items to date. There is still great need for the work that they do. Though there were only 15 accidents in 2010 in Quan Tri Province, resulting in 26 victims, the number of ordnance is still incredible. They just cleared 100 acres of land to a depth of 2 feet, and found 1285 unexploded ordnance. Every year with the rain season and the flooding of the rivers, more UXO are washed up or carried into Vietnam from Laos and Cambodia.

Last year while I was on my sabbatical, teachers at Evergreen School made contact with CHAMPS, a non profit organization that works with schools and the US State department, raising funds to train land mine detection dogs, as well as educating students about the risks of land mines. CHAMPS works with a number of countries around the world. They partner schools in the developed world with schools in land mine risk countries. The Evergreen students skyped a few times this school year with their partner school in Vietnam. Our trip to the CHAMPS school in Vietnam was the first time that students from partner schools met face to face. This event was so important to the organization that Kimberly, the Executive Director of the Marshall Legacy Institute, the umbrella organization for all the CHAMPS schools, and Rebecca, the Communications Coordinator for CHAMPS, came to Vietnam to witness this event.

Students from the two schools observing a number of singing performances, as well as two plays that focused on land mine education.

A play showing the dangers of land mines

In this play, a buffalo, the main livelihood of the family, was killed by a land mine.

My students performed as well. Then all the students met in the central square of the school to play games and exchange gifts.

After that we planted a few trees as a symbolic gesture of this event, then took the CHAMPS students and their teachers out to lunch. After lunch we said good bye and headed for Peace Trees, which works in partnership with CHAMPS school.

We planted trees

Then we met Li, Sang and Hong to hear their stories.

Hong told his story first. He is 18 years old and in the 11th grade. 6 years ago he was working at an excavation site, where he found a round item. He took it home and was trying to scrape off the dirt with a hammer when it exploded. He was in the hospital for one and a half months and lost his left hand. he hopes to go to art school when he graduates.

Sang is also 18 years old and in the 11th grade. In 2003 he found a strange item. He had heard from a friend that if you break it open, you can make great fireworks with the material inside. He lost his hand and his friends were injured as well.

Li is 21 years old and in the 11th grade. His accident occurred in June of 2000. he was only 10 years old when he and his cousins stopped at some sand dunes to play, on their way to visit their grand mother. He remembers the explosion. He said, "Right after the accident I was still awake. I could hear the screaming of my relatives and feel the burning inside and outside of my body. I could still see. A couple of minutes after that I couldn't see any more." Li was in the hospital for 4 months and had 10 surgeries. Because he couldn't see, he didn't know that he hand lost his arm and both his legs. When he first realized he had lost his limbs, he was with his parents at the hospital. Li explained, "When I saw the pain and sadness in my parents' eyes, I tried to be strong and not show my pain and disappointment." Li told us that two of his relatives had died. "I know that I have to leave that bad memory in the past and try to overcome it for my future. Sometimes when I am alone I try to think of the accident and wonder what had happened."

Li concluded his talk with a couple of songs, and told us he is so happy to meet us. I have met all three of these young men on past trips to Peace Trees. It was good to see them again. I am happy to be able to help them out in some small way, for they give so much more to my students in the sharing of their stories.

At the class meeting my students were asked to share something from today's events. Here are a few of their comments:

"It was the best lunch I have had yet, though the food wasn't very good."
"Even though we couldn't speak each other's language, I feel we really made a connection with them."
"I realized how hard even the simplest activities can be, like opening a bottle of water with one hand. But they wouldn't let that stop them."
"They are still willing to pursue their dreams. 'Land mine victim' isn't who they are. They don't let it define them."
"How amazing it is that today we can come to Vietnam, sit with these students, talk with them and play games together, when 50 years ago we may have been shooting at each other. It made me think about forgiveness."