A fifty-year-old man in Sop houn Village was attempting to expand his rice field. He died alone in the field so no one knows the exact detail of his death, but it was clear from the nature of his wounds that he fell victim to a cluster bomblet. Over 20,000 Lao citizens have been...
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This cluster munition should never have been moved, but we found it sitting on a tree stump. Obviously, some villager carried it from the place where it was found and placed it on the stump. Villagers know the risks associated with handling old American ordnance; they accept those risks because they want to keep...
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January 2011: Back to Phongsali Province! In January we’ll again take a nine- person team into Phongsali Province, and will offer villagers “Response Team” services to rid villages and surrounding countryside of old ordnance. Last year, our team focused our efforts on Ban Sop Houn: a village of 500 people, 96 houses, and 58...
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A 10-year-old girl was killed and her sister injured on Wednesday by a cluster bomb that exploded in Thasala village, Khamkeuth district, Borikhamxay province. The incident happened at about 11am, when Ms Pui, 10, was returning home from school and picked up an unexploded bomb. Her older sister Ms Paeng, 15, saw the bomb...
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New Zealand will provide $1.1 million to the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to help clear unexploded cluster munitions left in the north-east of the country, Disarmament and Arms Control Minister, Georgina te Heuheu, announced today. “More than thirty years after the end of the conflict in Indochina, cluster munitions and other...
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Noi is a soft-spoken grandmother living in Sop Houn. Her two accidents with old ordnance have left her frightened to dig or plant. Since she is a subsistence farmer, her fear is a terrible occupational handicap. In this interview Noi describes her most recent accident and shares her feelings about the event that so...
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The government of Switzerland yesterday contributed US$3 million towards unexploded ordnance (UXO) related activities, aiming to clear munitions in rural areas and help accident victims. Speaking at a signing ceremony for the funds, Regional Director for the Swiss Development Cooperation Martin Sommer said UXO has become a daily hazard in the lives of people...
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Sixth grade students in Wausau, Wisconsin, who are learning about the Vietnam War in the classroom, have begun a project they hope will help protect kids their age in Laos from injury or death resulting from bombs dropped on their homeland some four decades ago. Sue Thompson, a teacher at D.C. Everest Middle School...
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PROJECT PHONGSALI 2010 For the past three months, WHWV has labored in Phongsali Province, Laos, helping villagers rid their fields and gardens of unexploded ordnance left over from the Indochina War. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we were able to improve the lives of hundreds of villagers. We probably saved some lives,...
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Day 70 Bits and Bobs: Yai left his bag of sugar open and ants found it. Soon it was loaded with joyful ants. Rather than throw the sugar away, Yai simply put the open bag out in the sun. At the end of the day 99% of the ants were gone. “Sun too hot...
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