Village Assisted Clearance in Ban Phon, Khammouane Province
Story and photographs by Tom Morgan
Village Assisted Clearance, or VAC, is a MAG innovation, allowing community participation in setting priorities on the type of land to be cleared. Full training is given and members of the team receive extra income while they are carrying out clearance. The personnel in the team are changed after a set time to allow a fair distribution of opportunity throughout the village.
Mr Thong Keobounmy
"This is the first time I have ever had a job, and I like it very much," says Thong, 18, as he takes a rest from clearing unexploded ordnance (UXO) from his village's primary school. Phon village is three hours from the nearest small town, and there are few local options for paid employment. "I wanted to work for MAG as I thought it would be a good opportunity to earn some money. My family is poor." His parents and eight brothers and sisters raise chickens to sell at the local market, and they grow their own rice. However, the hectare of paddy field they own is not big enough for the family, and every year there is a rice shortage for three months. The village chief informed all families in the area that MAG were looking for people to help clear land. Thong wrote his name on the list that was sent to MAG. "I was very happy when I attended the training." Thong gives most of the money he earns to his parents, so they can buy rice, salt and other food for the family, and keeps a small part for himself.
Ms Lex
"There are eight people in my family. We ran out of rice two months ago and will not be able to harvest any more for another four months," says Lex, 18. Some years are even harder, and the family does not have enough rice for eight months of the year. When this is the case, her parents gather food from the forest near their village - this includes bamboo shoots and herbs. Collecting these is extremely time consuming but the family has no money and no surplus rice with which to barter. They have no other option. Lex knows that, thanks to MAG's VAC initiative, her family's situation will be a little easier this year.
Ms Bang Kham
Bang Kham, also aged 18, was at home one day when the village chief came to talk to her. "He said that the chance to work for MAG was a good opportunity for me," she says. "Our family is very poor. We only have a small areas of farmland, on which we plant rice, and there are seven people in my family. Sometimes we are without rice for eight months of the year. The income I get from MAG is my family's main income."
