dispatches from the new world of work

Why I Am Here

As I mentioned in my last post, I am in Quang Tri Province in Central Vietnam. This region received the heaviest sustained bombing campaign in the history of the world ... more bombs were dropped here than in WWI and WWII combined. Not all of the bombs detonated on impact, and many still lie in the ground here. These bombs are not duds, they just have not exploded ... yet. They lie in wait to be removed safely, or, much too often, detonate when someone disturbs them accidentally (sometimes intentionally) and the person is killed or maimed for life.

In the last two days I have visited with 3 young bomb survivors who are receiving help through our organization. Thanks to our terrific staff, two of them are now walking again. One though, a 13-year-old boy, is lying in a hospital bed after an artillery shell he was playing with blew off his lower legs and one of his arms last week.

Yesterday we visited the boy in the hospital. His mother and father were at his bedside along with other family members. His face was full of gunpowder burns and small bits of shrapnel.

"How do you feel?" one of our staff asked in Vietnamese.

"It really hurts." he replied.

It is hard not to see your own children in the eyes of one so badly injured. My heart broke when they translated what he said and I sat down beside him. His lower legs from a few inches below the knee had been amputated as had his left arm just beneath the elbow. I was relieved to see initial reports were wrong and that his fingers on his right hand remained and his eyesight seemed ok. (Video here. Contains graphic content.)

I sat with him for a while. His father cried next to the bed. He had lost his lower right leg to a landmine during the war ... now his son was suffering a seemingly worse fate.

On the way back from the hospital the staff and I discussed next steps. His amputations were in good locations for prosthetics and we will see he gets them, and they'll be paid for by us. We already informed the family on my visit that we would be covering all his medical expenses and setting up a scholarship fund. A home assessment was made today to see if the family needs construction work to make the house handicap accessible.

I know he will thrive someday, because we visited two other young people that have been through our program and are now walking. At one point it looked like they may never again.

I want to thank Tom for providing me with this forum. This will be my last post as I head back in a few days to the States. I will dearly miss my life here ... this work IS my passion. Thanks, Tom, for all your inspiration over the last 10 plus years (Marth and I celebrate our tenth anniversary in May!) ... I am so proud to call you a friend.

Thanks to all for your comments! I wish you all the best.

Shameless plug: www.cpi.org

The photos below are of Ha and Rot ... the kids I visited today ... their stories are worth a read.

James Hathaway posted this on 03/10/05.

Comments

Heroic efforts!

Posted by Sean at March 10, 2005 9:23 AM

Why not start here at home and help our men and women who have recently been maimed in the fight for freedom the world over?

Posted by Scott at March 10, 2005 9:33 AM

Goes to show war is not a game. And I often wonder if those who, in the confort of their offices, decide to go to war on our behalf ever really think through properly the magnitude of the consequences of their decisions.

Posted by roland at March 10, 2005 9:37 AM

James, I sent the vedio link into BoingBoing. If they blog it -- your site will into server shock for a day or too , but its in a good cause awareness !

Posted by /pd at March 10, 2005 10:01 AM

Roland, I cannot tell you whether any political officer thinks through the consequences of war. I can say that it would be a burden to bear that many of us are fortunate to not carry. You balance the inhumane acts of dictators and the security of your nation vs. the devastating impact that any war has among combatants and the innocent. Not a decision I envy.

But, let's not turn this into a political free fall. Instead, let's be grateful for men like James who take initiative to minister to the needy and be thankful for those who support his team's efforts.

Posted by Dustin at March 10, 2005 11:01 AM

Scott,

Those U.S. soldier who have been mained in war went into that situation knowing what could happen to them. Here are children who are feeling the effects of a war fought long ago. They are being mained not because they are fighting a war, but because they are children exploring their environment.

Let us (all of humanity) clean up the mechanisms of war that we have left behind.

Posted by Jill at March 10, 2005 11:16 AM

Hello Scott-

You have a legitimate question:

"Why not start here at home and help our men and women who have recently been maimed in the fight for freedom the world over?"

About 7 years ago, an opportunity to help here in Vietnam presented itself to me. I was not looking for it, it just happened. To make a VERY long story short, I was uniquely positioned to do something never done before, and to help people that were, thus far, receiving none. So I answered the call.

I compare it to driving down the road in Vermont after a heavy snow storm. If see a person by the side of the road who is stuck in a snowbank and if I have four wheel drive and chains, I will stop and offer to help pull them out.

In 1998, I happened upon a program that was operating in Vietnam and for which I knew I could make a big difference. No one was helping these kids. Since I "knew people who knew people" I thought "WOW...this could be how I help change the world for the better".

Regardless of nationality...children are children... we all love our kids... every mother cries the same tears.

I am an American. But I am also a father. If something like this ever happened to one of my kids, I would want someone else to do the same stuff I do.

Thank you, Scott, your point is very well (and often) taken. If I had had the same opportunity to help back at home, I would have taken it... but a unique set of circumstances brought me here... and for that I am very, very grateful.

Posted by James at March 10, 2005 11:33 AM

James, I love your story. Tom, thank you for bringing James testimony to your Blog. Perhaps some people can think itÂ´s not the normal content of a business blog, but I love it. And I like the way you are telling it, James. Bravo!

Posted by felix gerena at March 10, 2005 6:52 PM

Like my wife who is vietnamese-canadian would say: "Keep Donald Rumsfeld/Herman Goering type of leader in the white House, and there will be many other Vietnam".

Posted by Serge Labelle at March 11, 2005 2:37 PM

"Serge" - thank goodness for the USA heroes' win in Vietnam - otherwise Japan and Korea and Taiwan, etc. would be slaves to communism - hopefully you and your tiny brained spouse reside outside the USA - only an immoral liberal makes light of WWII / Goering and the Holocaust.

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