The teachers at Hai Thai Primary School No.2 in Quang Tri province used to worry about their students. Not that they might fail their exams, but that they might be injured or killed by UXO whilst playing in the playground.
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Hai Thai Primary School No.2, where 32 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) were removed by MAG. [Photo: MAG Vietnam] |
“We always prevented our students from playing on the playground,” said Ms Hoang Thi Xuan, the head teacher.
When the clearance took place in October 2007, the fears of the staff were proven to be correct – 32 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) were removed from the school grounds.
MAG recently returned to Trung An village to assess the impact of this work. As well as ensuring the safety of the students, the clearance has also enabled the school to increase its classroom capacity by 50 per cent. Ms Xuan had been reluctant to undertake the expansion of the school without searching the ground first.
Quang Tri province |
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View Quang Tri in a larger map |
Nguyen Thi Kim Lien, a student at the school, explained that previously, UXO had an effect on every aspect of life in the village: “My parents had land for a plantation, but they could not plant many rubber trees as there were many bombies [the local name for cluster bomblets] in the ground.” Between 2007 and 2009, MAG cleared more than 170 items of UXO from the village.
“Now we can play everywhere around the village,” said Lien. “My parents do not worry much about bombies and landmines anymore, because we have MAG’s telephone number and can call right away if we see any items.”
The head teacher, Ms Xuan, agreed: “Thanks to MAG, not only the teachers ourselves but also the students and their parents no longer feel worried.”
Download the latest MAGazine from MAG Vietnam [PDF]
Photo gallery: Responding to the legacy of the Tet Offensive
View MAG gallery. This photo gallery by Sean Sutton captures the effects 40 years on of a key phase of the Vietnam war in Quang Binh and Quang Tri.
MAG would like to express its thanks to the following donors to its Vietnam operations: Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Department of State; UK Department for International Development (DFID); Talisman Energy; Irish Aid; Jersey Overseas Aid Commission; Adopt-A-Minefield; Imperial Tobacco. See Tags below for related articles.
24 February 2010
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