A two-day field visit reinforces a decade-long partnership for victim assistance and explosive ordnance risk education.

On 28 and 29 May 2026, a delegation from the Embassy of Ireland in Viet Nam, led by Ms. Edel Cribbin, Head of Development Cooperation, visited the RENEW Center for Rehabilitation and Disability Support in Quang Tri Province. After first meeting the RENEW team over a Zoom call in March 2026, Ms. Cribbin was now able to step onto the ground in Quang Tri and see the work for herself. The two-day visit was an opportunity for the Embassy to observe activities of the Victim Assistance, Disability Support, and Explosive Ordnance Risk Education project that it has funded for the past decade, and to meet directly with families whose lives have been shaped by the long shadow of war and the steady work of recovery.

In Khe Sanh: thirteen years on

In Ruong Village, Khe Sanh Commune, the delegation visited the family of Mr. Ho Van Y. At the age of seventeen, Mr. Y was tilling a coffee farm near the former Ta Con Airbase when he struck an unexploded bomb in the soil. He lost his right leg in the accident. Thirteen years on, he has received three successive prostheses from the RENEW Center, raises four breeding cows on the surrounding hillside, and lives in a stilt house with his wife and three young sons.

The delegation sat with the family inside the house, listened to Mr. Y describe the rhythm of his days, and handed over essential household equipment: a water filter, an electric fan, a food cabinet, and a rice cooker. A small fire pit in the corner of the home, with a kettle resting on a three-legged trivet, spoke of the modest scale on which a family in this mountainous commune still builds a life.

In Huong Hiep: a life rebuilt

In Phu An Village, Huong Hiep Commune, the delegation met Mr. Ho Van My and his wife, Ms. Ho Thi Tran. Mr. My was blinded in a landmine accident at the age of seventeen, while working the soil near his family’s home. Ms. Tran was born with congenital leg atrophy. The two married in 2022 and have three children together. Their youngest daughter is currently studying Japanese in Hanoi, with the hope of one day working abroad.

Last month, after a needs assessment by RENEW staff, the family received a breeding cow. The animal now grazes near the house. For a couple who have lived most of their lives with disability and very limited means, the cow is more than livestock. It is a quiet symbol of a life being rebuilt, one season at a time.

At the Visitor Center: education that prevents tragedy

On the morning of 29 May, the delegation visited the Mine Action Visitor Center, where four Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) activity groups were running simultaneously: outdoor mine-risk games and safety marking, a general orientation on the causes of accidents and safe behavior, an immersive experience using the RENEW AR augmented reality application, and a peer education model in which students role-play to understand and walk alongside persons with disabilities.

The activities, designed for school-aged children, brought to life the kind of patient, hands-on risk education that helps prevent the next generation of tragedies, of the kind that the families in Khe Sanh and Huong Hiep have lived through.

Looking ahead together

In the Center’s meeting room, the leadership of the RENEW Center and the program managers of the two project components briefed Ms. Cribbin and her colleagues on activity progress and looked ahead to the next phase of work. The conversation also touched on the scope of project activities across the communes of Cua Tung, Gio Linh, Hieu Giang, Trieu Phong, Trieu Binh, and Vinh Dinh, and the encouraging fact that no UXO accidents have been recorded in the project areas during the current reporting period.

A decade of accompaniment

Project RENEW expresses its sincere gratitude to the Government of Ireland, through the Embassy of Ireland in Viet Nam, for its enduring partnership: funding Explosive Ordnance Risk Education since 2015, and Victim Assistance and Disability Support since 2016.

A decade of accompaniment has translated, in homes from Khe Sanh to Huong Hiep, into prostheses and breeding cows, into water filters and rice cookers, and above all into the quiet certainty that the most vulnerable are not being left behind.

Go raibh maith agaibh.

The PM/WRA delegation visiting NPA/RENEW’s central demolition site at Hoi Yen village, Vinh Dinh commune, where explosive ordnance items recovered through the QTMAC hotline are safely destroyed.

HOI YEN VILLAGE (12 May 2026) – On the morning of 12 May, a five-member delegation from the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (PM/WRA) of the U.S. Department of State, together with the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, arrived at NPA/RENEW’s Central Demolition Site (CDS) in Vĩnh Định Commune. The delegation was led by Programme Manager Ethan Rinks.

The visit was part of PM/WRA’s periodic monitoring of its grantees in central Vietnam. The destination was a perimetered clearing in the heart of one of the province’s most heavily contaminated districts, where unexploded ordnance recovered from across Quảng Trị is taken for safe and permanent destruction.

Six items were waiting.

The demolition pit prepared at NPA/RENEW’s CDS for the 5-inch naval shell containing white phosphorus, unearthed by a Trúc Lâm villager tending his garden in Gio Linh.

Five of them had been recovered from a single field in Vĩnh Quang Hạ Village, Gio Linh Commune. A farmer working his land had uncovered a metallic object protruding from the soil. He recognized what he saw, an 81mm mortar round, and called the QTMAC hotline. NPA/RENEW’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, tasked by the Quảng Trị Mine Action Centre, arrived to investigate. A careful search of the area around the find produced four more items the farmer had not seen, all U.S.-pattern munitions: three M79 grenades and an M26 hand grenade, all lying in the same soil where his rice would have grown.

The sixth item came from a different Gio Linh field, and a different story. In Trúc Lâm Village, a man tending his garden uncovered something larger: a 5-inch U.S. naval shell, fired from offshore more than half a century ago, its white phosphorus filler still viable. Another phone call to QTMAC. Another response by the EOD team. Another recovery and transport to Hội Yên.

Before the demolition began, the delegation walked the perimeter of an older crater nearby, twenty meters wide and five meters deep. It had been formed six days earlier, when NPA/RENEW’s EOD team destroyed a 750-pound M117 aerial bomb at this same site. That earlier bomb, recovered from beside the Sa Lung railway in Vĩnh Linh, had been quietly waiting just thirty centimeters below the soil for over fifty years until repair workers uncovered it. The crater now stood as a sobering measure of what the railway, and the families living beside it, had been spared.

The delegation observing a crater 20 meters wide and 5 meters deep, resulting from the demolition of the 750-pound high-explosive M117 aerial bomb which the NPA/RENEW EOD team handled on 6 May, following a local community report of an item found near the North – South railway.

NPA/RENEW Team Leader Hoàng Kim Chiến then briefed the delegation on the sequence to come: two separate detonations, the first for the five high-explosive items from Vĩnh Quang Hạ, the second for the white phosphorus shell from Trúc Lâm. The operation was coordinated with the commune authorities and the Military Liaison Officer.

NPA/RENEW EOD team leader Hoang Kim Chien briefing the PM/WRA delegation on the two sequenced detonations that his team is going to undertake in coordination with the commune authorities and military liaisons.

The first detonation came shortly afterwards. The second followed once the team had confirmed the site was clear. By mid-morning, all six items were gone.

Six items. Two villages. Two phone calls. One complete cycle of the provincially-led, partner-implemented model that defines mine action in Quảng Trị.

The 5-inch shell recovered from Trúc Lâm carries its own historical weight. Naval gunfire support along the Vietnamese coast, particularly off Quảng Trị and the former Demilitarized Zone, was sustained throughout the war. That such a shell could lie intact in a Gio Linh garden for more than fifty years, its filler still chemically viable, is a measure of how patient the legacy of that bombardment has been.

The moment of the demolition for the white phosphorus shell, which requires separate handling. Half a century after they were fired, six explosive remnants of war end their journey in two controlled demolitions.

It is also a measure of why monitoring visits like this one matter. Every survey conducted, every square meter cleared, every item safely destroyed in central Vietnam stands on a partnership that has been sustained, year after year, by U.S. Government support delivered through PM/WRA.

Fifty years after the war, the work continues. From the rice fields of Vĩnh Quang Hạ to the gardens of Trúc Lâm, the soil of Quảng Trị is being returned, item by item, to the families who live above it.

We sincerely thank the Government of the United States, through the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, for the valuable support that makes this work possible.

The M117 in situ, five meters from the railway in Linh Hải Village. Workers uncovered it 30 cm below the soil during bridge repairs.

LINH HẢI VILLAGE (6 May 2026) – On May 5, a phone call from a military officer of Vinh Thuy Commune, Quang Tri Province may have prevented a tragedy on Vietnam’s main North–South rail line. Today, the bomb is gone.

The discovery was made by workers repairing the Sa Lung railway bridge, who uncovered a suspicious unexploded ordnance (UXO) just 30 cm below the soil. The site in Linh Hải Village sits approximately 1.6 km south of the Sa Lung railway station and only 5 kilometers north of the 17th parallel — the historic Bến Hải River and DMZ line. During the war, this area was the heart of the Vĩnh Linh Special Zone, a territory that endured some of the heaviest aerial bombardments in history, forcing civilians to live in tunnel complexes for years. This M117 bomb had lain just 5 meters from the railway tracks for over half a century.

Provincial Ops Manager Mai Văn Việt and Team Leader Hoàng Kim Chiến identify the ordnance as a U.S. M117 aerial bomb.

Following a report to the QTMAC hotline, NPA/RENEW’s EOD team arrived before lunch on May 6. The investigation, led by Provincial Ops Manager Mai Văn Việt and Team Leader Hoàng Kim Chiến, identified the ordnance as a U.S. M117 aerial bomb.

– Total Weight: 340 kg (≈ 750 lb)
– Explosive Fill: 183 kg of Minol 2 or Tritonal
– Condition: Broken nose fuze and oxidized tail fuze

After stability was confirmed, the bomb was loaded onto a pickup for the journey to NPA/RENEW’s central demolition site at Hoi Yen village.

After confirming the bomb was stable enough for transport, the team carefully loaded the 750 pounds of steel and high explosives onto their pickup truck. It was relocated to NPA/RENEW’s central demolition site at Hoi Yen village, Vinh Dinh commune, where a demolition pit reinforced with 1,500 sandbags were being prepared. At 12:05, the M117 was safely destroyed. The resulting crater — 20 meters wide and 5 meters deep — offered a sobering answer to what would have happened to the railway and nearby families had it detonated in situ. By 13:00, the EOD team and supporting personnel had collected every fragment of shrapnel and cleared the site.

The crater after demolition — 20 meters wide and 5 meters deep. A sobering measure of what the Sa Lung bridge had been spared.

Back in Linh Hải, the trains kept running, and bridge workers resumed their jobs just 50 meters from where the threat once lay. No homes were damaged, and no one was hurt. The workers made the right call to the commune military. A morning of coordinated work ensured that call ended the only way it should: safely.

The M117 was the U.S. Air Force’s standard 750-pound general-purpose bomb of the Vietnam War, dropped in vast numbers by tactical aircraft — F-4 Phantoms, F-105 Thunderchiefs, A-6 Intruders, A-7 Corsairs — and, after 1968, by B-52 strategic bombers in their “Big Belly” configuration, which could carry up to 108 of them per aircraft. Tens of thousands fell on the railways and bridges of Vĩnh Linh district between 1965 and 1973.

The Theater History of Operations Reports (THOR) — a declassified U.S. Department of Defense database released in 2016 — records every documented U.S. air operation in Southeast Asia, including target coordinates, aircraft type, ordnance dropped, and mission identification numbers. Recent research by Dr. Philipp Barthelme at the University of Edinburgh has corrected a long-standing datum error in the THOR coordinates and combined the records with declassified KH-9 reconnaissance satellite imagery from March 1973. With those tools, individual strikes can begin to be matched to the craters and unexploded bombs found today. Fifty-three years after the war, the silent geography of the bombing is becoming, line by line, legible again.

Fifty years after the war, the work continues. Piece by piece, the land of Vĩnh Thủy is being returned to its people.

We sincerely thank the Government of the United States, through the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, and the Government of Norway for their valuable support for our meaningful mission in Vietnam.

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By Project RENEW | April 17, 2026

Mr. Nang and Ms. Hiền at their home in Vinh Linh, Quang Tri. Photo: RENEW

On a quiet street in Vinh Linh Commune, Quang Tri Province, a small sugarcane juice stall sits in front of a modest home. Every morning, a blind man and his wife begin their day here, side by side, doing what they can, together.

This is the story of Nang and Hien.

A Life Interrupted

Nang was born in 1972 in Tan Dinh Village, Vinh Chap Commune, Vinh Linh District, the youngest of six children in a family of modest means. After finishing ninth grade, he could not continue to high school. Instead, he chose to work, to help carry the weight of his family.

In 1994, at just 22 years old, his life changed forever.

While working as a daily laborer for an electricity corporation, Nang and two friends discovered an aircraft bomb left over from the war. They attempted to destroy the fuze by covering the bomb with dried wood and setting it on fire, hoping to sell the casing as scrap metal. After an hour of silence, they thought it was safe to return.

It was not.

The explosion killed one of his friends instantly. Nang survived. However, the blast took away his eyesight permanently. In a single moment, the young man who had worked to support his aging parents became entirely dependent on them.

The Long Road Back

For many UXO survivors, permanent disability means the end of economic independence. For Nang, it became the beginning of a different kind of journey.

He joined the Blind Association and learned massage therapy, a skill that would become his livelihood. At age 30, he opened his own massage therapy room at 26 Nguyen Du Street, Vinh Linh, a small but hard-won milestone. He worked diligently, saved carefully, and eventually purchased his own home.

“Born and grew up as a normal person, I unfortunately had a bomb and mine accident,” he recalls quietly. “I couldn’t have a job, and I had to stay at home.”

But staying home, for Nang, was never truly staying still.

A Love Story Across a Thousand Miles

In 2016, through a friend’s introduction, Nang met Hien, a young woman from Can Tho Province in the Mekong Delta, nearly a thousand kilometers away.

Hien had heard about this blind man from Quang Tri. She heard about his resilience, his determination, his refusal to be defined by his disability. And she made a decision that would change both their lives.

“I am a southern person, far away from Quang Tri,” she says, her voice warm and certain. “But knowing his resilience, I really admired him. I decided to make the long journey to join him here.”

They married in 2017. Today, they have a daughter, 20 months old, the quiet center of everything they do.

A New Chapter, With RENEW’s Support

Through the RENEW Center’s victim assistance program, funded by the Government of Ireland through the Irish Embassy in Hanoi, Nang’s family received a sugarcane juicing machine, enabling them to operate a small business from their home.

The division of labor between husband and wife is a study in partnership. Nang, who cannot operate the machine, scrapes and prepares the sugarcane sticks. Hien operates the juicer and serves customers. Together, they run a living, functioning small enterprise that serves their neighborhood.

On a recent morning, a customer stopped her motorbike in front of their home and ordered four glasses of juice to take away. It was an ordinary transaction and an extraordinary testament to what is possible when survivors receive the right support at the right time.

“With the support from RENEW Center and the Government of Ireland,” Hien says, “our family was provided with a sugarcane juicer machine. This helps us earn extra income to afford our family’s needs.”

A Simple Dream

When asked about her dreams for the future, Hien pauses and then smiles.

“We don’t dare to dream big,” she says simply. “We just dream that our daughter will grow up and study well. That is the greatest source of happiness for both of us.”

It is a dream so modest it could be missed. And yet for a blind man who rebuilt himself from nothing, and a woman who traveled a thousand miles for love, it is perhaps the most powerful dream of all.

25 Years of Walking Beside Survivors

Nang’s story is one of thousands supported by the RENEW Center’s victim assistance program over the past 25 years. Since its establishment, Project RENEW has worked tirelessly to clear explosive remnants of war from Quang Tri’s soil and to walk beside those whose lives have already been changed by them.

On this Vietnam’s Day for Persons with Disabilities, April 18, 2026, we honor not only Nang’s resilience, but the resilience of every survivor who has refused to be defined by the darkness of a single moment.

RENEW expresses its sincere gratitude to the Government of Ireland and the Irish Embassy in Vietnam for their generous and sustained support of UXO victim assistance in Quang Tri Province.

For more information about RENEW’s victim assistance program, please visit: landmines.org.vn

A Behalf Studio team member introduces the RENEW AR app to schoolchildren at the Mine Action Visitor Center in Quảng Trị, February 2025. On the walls behind her: wartime photographs and a map showing locations of all the postwar accidents in the province.

QUANG TRI — Earlier this year, a group of schoolchildren gathered at the Mine Action Visitor Center in Quảng Trị for an Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) session. This is familiar in a province where the dangers beneath the ground have shaped everyday awareness for generations. What felt new was the device in the instructor’s hand: through her phone, a cluster munition appeared on the ground in front of her. Interactive, three-dimensional, and close enough to walk around and examine. No one was in danger. That was precisely the point.

The session marked the debut of RENEW AR — Safe Steps, Safe Life, a free augmented reality mobile application developed by RENEW in partnership with Behalf Studio, with support from the Government of Ireland through the Irish Embassy in Vietnam. A video recap of the launch was shared on April 4 to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action — and with it, the app’s download links were made available to the public for the first time.

8,600 Casualties — and a Record That Didn’t Hold

Since 1975, the former Quang Tri has recorded more than 8,600 casualties from UXO accidents. One in three of those victims was a child under the age of 16. These are not relics of a distant past. They are the accumulated cost, measured in individual lives and families, of living on land that the war saturated with ordnance and that decades of clearance work have not yet made fully safe.

According to the Quang Tri Mine Action Center (QTMAC), cluster munitions — known locally as bom bi, or “bombies” — account for 21% of total UXO casualties in the province. They are among the most deceptive of the remnants: small, numerous, and capable of lying inert for decades before detonating. Their presence is not merely a safety threat. It is a persistent obstacle to normal land use, keeping fields unfarmed and construction sites dangerous, constraining the economic recovery of communities still carrying the weight of the war.

The milestone year of 2019 marked the first time since the end of the war that Quang Tri recorded zero UXO accidents — a historic achievement born of decades of sustained clearance, risk education, and community engagement. The record held through 2021. Then, between 2022 and 2024, five male residents — aged 15, 34, 43, 44, and 50 — fell victim to UXO accidents. Three of those accidents were fatal. The work is not finished.

The age range of those five victims tells its own story. UXO does not target a particular demographic. It waits. It is found by farmers, by construction workers, by young people whose curiosity outpaces their caution, and by men who have lived beside this danger their entire lives and, one day, encounter it somewhere new.

Half the Land Cleared — the Other Half Still Waiting

As of March 2026, clearance teams from NPA/RENEW, MAG, and PTVN have cleaned up 46.8% of the total area confirmed to be contaminated by cluster munitions in what is now South Quang Tri — 619,465,479 square meters of land surveyed, of which nearly half has been released back to communities.

That 46.8% represents an enormous achievement — years of painstaking survey and technical clearance in difficult terrain. It also means that more than half of the confirmed contaminated area remains. At current rates, clearance will continue for years, if not decades. Communities living on or near that land cannot wait for a cleared certificate before they need to know how to stay safe. Explosive Ordnance Risk Education must run in parallel with clearance — not as a temporary measure, but as a sustained, long-term investment in its own right.

Three Objects, Three Lessons, One App

RENEW AR — Safe Steps, Safe Life focuses on the three types of cluster munitions most commonly found in Quảng Trị — the objects behind that 21% casualty figure, the ones most likely to be mistaken for something harmless, and the ones a person is most likely to encounter without recognizing the danger.

An educator shows the RENEW AR app on a tablet to a small group of students seated in a circle, surrounded by free-from-explosive ordnance casings on display at the Visitor Center.

Using the camera on any modern smartphone or tablet, the app overlays photorealistic three-dimensional models of these munitions onto the user’s real-world surroundings. A student can place a rendered bombie on the classroom floor and walk around it. A farmer can see what a particular type looks like against the red laterite soil they work every day. The object responds to movement, holds its position, and can be examined from angles no flat illustration can provide.

The app teaches three core behaviors: identifying the objects by appearance; responding correctly — maintaining distance, marking the location, reporting to authorities — rather than touching or moving them; and understanding that any unfamiliar object in the ground is already a reason to stop. Attached to a visual memory of a specific object seen up close, these responses are more likely to be recalled when they matter most.

Students gather around a phone as a Youth Union educator demonstrates the app.

Step 2 of the RENEW AR app: Đánh dấu nơi phát hiện vật nổ — mark the location where the explosive object was found. The app guides users through safe response behavior step by step.

At the February launch at the Mine Action Visitor Center, children who had grown up hearing warnings about UXO from parents and grandparents encountered, for the first time, a visual representation of the objects described. Educators from both RENEW and Behalf Studio were present. Engagement was immediate.

Video recap of the February 2025 introduction of RENEW AR — Safe Steps, Safe Life at the Mine Action Visitor Center in South Quang Tri. Published April 4, 2025, on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

A New Province, a Larger Challenge

The context for this work has recently grown more complex. Quang Tri Province has been merged with Quang Binh to form a new, enlarged administrative unit — a significantly wider geographical area with a larger population and a longer stretch of contaminated land to address. South Quang Tri, the former province, now sits within a broader territory that includes heavily contaminated corridors along the former Ho Chi Minh Trail bordering Laos, where some of the most underserved communities in the region live.

Physical outreach — trained educators traveling to remote villages, conducting sessions, returning for follow-up — is resource-intensive and difficult to scale across mountainous terrain. An app that a community health worker can demonstrate on a phone, that a teacher can use without specialist training, that a family can share at home, extends the reach of risk education in ways traditional methods cannot easily replicate. It does not replace field-based EORE. But in the upland communities along the former trail, it may be the first time someone sees a realistic image of what they should not touch — and that encounter could matter.

The Partnership Behind the Screen

The technical development of the app was carried out by Behalf Studio, whose team worked closely with RENEW’s EORE program staff to ensure accuracy in every 3D model — the right dimensions, surface texture, and weathering for objects that have spent decades in the ground. In this field, an inaccurate model is not an aesthetic failure. It is a safety risk.

The Government of Ireland, through the Irish Embassy in Vietnam, provided the funding that made the project possible — reflecting a long-standing Irish commitment to mine action in Southeast Asia and a shared understanding that education and clearance must advance together.

A student browses the RENEW AR — Bước Chân An Toàn listing on the App Store. The app is free to download on both iOS and Android.

Download RENEW AR — Safe Steps, Safe Life for free:
📱 iOS: Download on the App Store
📱 Android: Download on Google Play

Investing in Peace, One Safe Step at a Time

The theme of this year’s International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action — Invest in Peace; Invest in Mine Action — carries particular weight in Quang Tri.  The zero-accident year of 2019 showed what sustained investment in clearance and education can achieve. The accidents between 2022 and 2024 showed how much remains to do. And the clearance data — 46.8% of confirmed contaminated land released after decades of work — shows that EORE is not a temporary measure while the real work gets done. It is part of the real work, for as long as that land takes to clear.

Download RENEW AR — Safe Steps, Safe Life. Share it. And support the work that is, step by careful step, making Quang Tri’s land safe again.

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Partners in safety: Mr. Tran Van Nam (left) guides NPA/RENEW EOD team member Nguyen Duc Hoa to a discovery site in Xuan Hoa Village.

GIO LINH — On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, the NPA/RENEW EOD team successfully conducted five consecutive emergency tasks in Gio Linh Commune. The operations resulted in the recovery of six items of unexploded ordnance (UXO), showcasing a vital shift in community behavior from risk-taking to proactive reporting.

A Lesson in Safety: The Power of Education

This 60mm mortar was found and marked by a 10th-grade student. Reporting such items is crucial in preventing accidents.

Among the morning’s urgent callouts, a discovery in Xuan Hoa Village highlighted the life-saving impact of Mine Risk Education (MRE). A 10th-grade student spotted a suspicious object in a barren garden near his home while on his way to school. Applying his safety training, the student used an old helmet to clearly mark the location, informed his parents, and used his mobile phone to call the provincial hotline managed by the Quang Tri Mine Action Center (QTMAC).

Because the student had marked the spot so effectively, the NPA/RENEW EOD team was able to locate the item quickly upon arrival. The team was met by the student’s father, Mr. Tran Van Nam (born 1985), who guided the technicians to the marked spot where a 60mm mortar was recovered. Mr. Nam then led the team to a second location near a village fish pond, where an additional 81mm mortar was found. Both items were secured for safe disposal.

Context: Breaking the Cycle of High-Risk Behavior

The student’s decision to mark and report represents a crucial change in community behavior. Data from QTMAC regarding the former Quang Tri Province (prior to its administrative merger with Quang Binh) underscores the gravity of the risks still present. Between 2022 and 2024, five male residents—aged 15, 34, 43, 44, and 50—fell victim to UXO accidents.

Tragically, three of these accidents were fatal. Data shows that in four out of these five cases, the victims had deliberately touched or attempted to dismantle the ordnance while foraging or digging. Notably, the youngest victim in these records was 15 years old—the same age as the student who safely reported the ordnance in Xuan Hoa. This contrast proves that MRE is successfully turning potential victims into community lifesavers and serving as a vital early warning system for the QTMAC-coordinated network.

This life-saving behavior is the result of a long-standing commitment to safety in the province. Since 2015, the Government of Ireland has provided sustained funding for Project RENEW’s MRE programs. This decade of support has ensured that an entire generation of children—like Mr. Nam’s son—has grown up with the knowledge and skills to stay safe in an environment still impacted by war legacies.

Chronology of a Busy Morning: Safeguarding Homes and Livelihoods

The NPA/RENEW EOD team’s high-activity day actually began earlier that morning in Long Hai Village. Following a hotline report, the team first met 21-year-old Le Hoang Khanh, who discovered two massive 155mm High Explosive (HE) artillery shells while clearing his family’s back garden. With his parents working in another province, Khanh took the initiative to ensure his home was safe by calling for professional help.

High-explosive threat: Team Leader Hoang Kim Chien inspects two massive 155mm artillery shells found in a residential garden in Long Hai Village.

Following the tasks at Mr. Nam’s house in Xuan Hoa, the team responded to two more reports:

• Construction Safety: Also in Xuan Hoa Village, Mr. Le Anh Quoc discovered a 105mm artillery shell lying immediately adjacent to a busy village road while clearing land for a new building. He approached the EOD team directly in the field to report the finding.

• Livelihood Support: In Truc Lam Village, Mr. Tran Xuan Hieu discovered a 60mm mortar shell exposed in the mud while draining a fish pond for a new crop. The team’s rapid response allowed Mr. Hieu to continue his work safely.

By midday, all six explosive items had been successfully recovered and transported to the central demolition site for safe disposal. The partnership between vigilant residents, QTMAC coordination, and the NPA/RENEW EOD team remains the foundation of a safer future for the people of Gio Linh.

Click to view slideshow.

We sincerely thank the Government of the United States 🇺🇸 through the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, the Government of Norway 🇳🇴, and the Government of Ireland 🇮🇪 through the Embassy of Ireland in Vietnam for their valuable support to our meaningful humanitarian mission in Vietnam 🇻🇳.

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Nguyen Thanh Hao, a 1984 ERW survivor and Deputy Director of the Gio Linh Center, begins his first day with modern technology. For over a decade, Hao relied on a computer that had become an obstacle to his mission of service.

GIO LINH, QUANG TRI – In the golden rice fields of Cam Pho Village, the year 1984 was supposed to be a time of celebration and harvest. For Nguyen Thanh Hao, then 19 years old and a fresh high school graduate, it was a day of helping his parents prepare for the upcoming harvest. But the “quiet war” hidden beneath the soil had other plans. An explosion of explosive remnants of war (ERW) tore through the field, and in an instant, Hao lost both of his hands.

Today, 42 years after that life-altering moment, Hao is no longer a victim, but a leader. As the Deputy Director of the Gio Linh Daycare and Rehabilitation Center for Children with Disabilities, he has dedicated his life to ensuring that the next generation of children affected by disability receives the care and dignity they deserve.

The Gio Linh Center: A Sanctuary Supported by Partnership

The Gio Linh Center has been a cornerstone of Project RENEW’s mission since January 2022, made possible through the generous funding of the Irish Embassy in Vietnam. This support provides a lifeline for 15 children with severe mental and physical disabilities, covering subsistence costs, caregiving staff, and essential daily equipment.

However, the shadow of the past remains long in Gio Linh Commune. While the Center provides high-quality care for 15 children, nearly 60 other children in the surrounding area suffer from severe disabilities and remain on a waiting list due to the facility’s limited capacity. For a leader like Mr. Hao, efficiency in administration is vital to managing these limited resources.

The Power of Observation

The FAOV delegation visited RENEW on February 6, 2026. This visit by long-time partners was the catalyst for providing Hao with the modern tools he needs to lead the Center.

On February 6, 2026, a delegation from Friends of Agent Orange Victims (FAOV) visited the Center. Among them were Ms. Nguyen Minh Ha (Director), Mr. Ngo Huy Liem (Advisory Board), and Ms. Minh Loan.

It was during this visit that Ms. Loan noticed a significant hurdle: Hao was managing the Center’s complex coordination, donor reporting, and child records on a computer that was over 15 years old. Having used the same aging Windows and Office setup for over a decade, the machine had become a bottleneck for Hao, who has spent years perfecting a specialized way of typing and navigating technology without hands. Moved by Hao’s four decades of dedication, Ms. Loan decided to provide a personal gift: a brand-new Lenovo laptop.

Bridging the Digital Divide

To ensure the transition to modern technology was seamless, the handover took place on February 25 at a local electronics shop. A specialized technician spent 45 minutes with Hao, providing a “technical grand tour” of the new Windows 11 system. This patient orientation was crucial to ensure Hao felt empowered by the new interface rather than overwhelmed by the change from his 15-year-old setup.

Bridging the digital divide: A 45-minute orientation session was essential to ensure a smooth transition from Hao’s 15-year-old operating system to modern Windows 11 and Microsoft Office.

This patient orientation was crucial to ensure Hao felt empowered by the new interface rather than overwhelmed by it. “I am glad that I can help Mr. Hao in his work,” Ms. Loan shared. “I hope the new laptop will make his job easier and more efficient. Thank you for giving me a chance to help.”

A Legacy Continued

This act of kindness reflects the enduring vision of Dick Hughes, the founder of FAOV and a dedicated partner of Project RENEW since 2013. It serves as a perfect complement to the foundational support provided by the Irish Embassy, demonstrating how international cooperation—from national embassies to individual acts of compassion—can empower those on the front lines of service.

As Mr. Hao sits at his desk today in the Gio Linh Center, his hands may be gone, but his ability to lead, document, and advocate for the children of his commune is stronger than ever—powered by a tool that finally matches his resilient spirit.

Back at his desk: Forty-two years after his accident in the rice fields of Cam Pho, Nguyen Thanh Hao is empowered by technology to continue his mission of service for the next generation.

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Nam Dong Ha, Quang Tri (29 January 2026) – To maintain the province’s historic milestone of zero UXO accidents in 2025, the Project RENEW Mine Action Visitor Center today welcomed 30 students from Cam Thuy Primary School (Hieu Giang Commune) for a specialized Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) session.

While Quang Tri has made significant strides in landmine clearance, education remains the first line of defense. According to statistics from the Quang Tri Mine Action Center (QTMAC), children under the age of 16 have historically accounted for 31% of total post-war casualties in the province.

During the session, students learned to identify hazards and practiced the life-saving protocol: “Don’t touch, stay away, and report to an adult.”

Emphasizing the impact of the visit, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phu, Manager of the Mine Action Visitor Center and Officer in charge of the EORE program, stated:

“Education is our most sustainable clearance tool. By teaching these 30 students from Hieu Giang Commune today, we are ensuring that the children of Quang Tri are not just survivors of the past, but guardians of a safer future.”

This activity is a key component of the EORE program managed by the RENEW Center for Rehabilitation and Disability Support (RENEW Center). This vital work is made possible through the generous and sustained funding provided by the Government of Ireland through the Irish Embassy in Vietnam.

The partnership between the Government of Ireland and Project RENEW ensures that the younger generation in high-risk areas is empowered with the knowledge to stay safe until the land is fully cleared.

A safe start to 2026: The NPA/RENEW EOD team successfully destroys six dangerous explosives in a controlled demolition in Cua Viet Commune.

QUANG TRI, VIETNAM (January 9, 2026) – The new year has begun with a heartening display of community cooperation and rapid action in Quang Tri Province. On Monday, January 5th—the first working day of 2026 following the holiday break—the NPA/RENEW Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team returned to the field and successfully responded to five separate requests for help, safely removing dangerous explosives found in the middle of busy residential areas.

Neighbors Looking Out for Neighbors

The busy start to the year was driven by the high level of awareness among local residents in Gio Linh, Ben Quan, and Cua Viet. These families know that even decades after the war, the ground can still hold dangerous secrets. By early Monday afternoon, five different neighborhoods were already being made safe thanks to quick-thinking citizens who called the NPA/RENEW EOD team as soon as they spotted a threat.

Local Heroes: Captain Xuân and Mr. Thắng

At the heart of Monday’s success were stories of everyday people taking action to protect their communities.

In Lan Dinh Village, Captain Lê Viết Xuân of the local Public Security force showed how vital local leadership is to the mission. After being alerted by villagers to a suspicious object in a garden, Captain Xuan didn’t hesitate. He called the hotline and stayed on-site to lead the NPA/RENEW EOD team directly to the danger, ensuring the rusted shell was handled before anyone could get hurt.

Captain Le Viet Xuan of the Gio Linh Public Security force (right) briefs Team Leader Hoang Kim Chien on the location of a rusted shell found in a local garden.

A few miles away in Ha Thanh Village, Mr. Trần Ngọc Thắng, a local bricklayer, was at work with his team renovating a village graveyard when they unearthed another large explosive. Recognizing the danger immediately, Mr. Thắng stopped work and called for assistance. His prompt report ensured that a place of rest and reflection for the village remained safe for all visitors.

Local bricklayer Trần Ngọc Thắng explains how his team discovered a large explosive while renovating a village graveyard in Ha Thanh Village.

Making the Land Safe

By the end of this first day back in the field, the NPA/RENEW EOD team had safely recovered and removed six dangerous explosives, including various artillery shells and mortar rounds. These items were found in the very places where people live and work—in backyard gardens, along village roads, and in public spaces.

The day concluded with the team safely destroying all the recovered items at a designated site in Cua Viet. This final act ensured that these remnants of the past will never again pose a threat to the children and families of Quang Tri.

A Comprehensive Partnership for Safety

These rapid-response successes are the result of a holistic approach to mine action, made possible through a strong partnership between local teams and international supporters.

We sincerely thank the Government of the United States (through the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi) and the Government of Norway for their continued support of the technical EOD operations that safely remove and destroy these items.

Equally vital to this process is the alertness of the community. The high level of awareness shown by citizens like Captain Xuan and Mr. Thắng is nurtured through the Explosive Ordnance Risk Education program of RENEW, supported by the Government of Ireland (through the Embassy of Ireland in Vietnam). Ireland’s commitment also extends to victim assistance and support for persons with disabilities, ensuring a safer and more inclusive future for the people of Quang Tri.

This collective commitment from our donors ensures that as the people of Quang Tri build their futures, they can do so with the confidence that their land is safe and their community is protected.

As we move into 2026, the message to every household remains the same: If you see something suspicious, stay away, do not touch it, and call the hotline immediately. Together, we keep our community safe.

📞 UXO Hotline (Quang Tri): 0901 941 941

(Hanoi, Vietnam) – On Friday, January 9, Project RENEW will join author and former diplomat Thomas Bo Pedersen for the launch of the Vietnamese edition of his political thriller, “Những Bóng Ma Trở Lại” (The Ghosts Return).

Mr. Pedersen has generously dedicated this event to supporting Project RENEW’s humanitarian work in Quang Tri Province.

The event, organized by Book Hunter, will feature a discussion between the author and translator Hà Thủy Nguyên on the “ghosts” of history and moral debts. Project RENEW representatives Chuck Searcy and Ngo Xuan Hien will join as guests to discuss the real-world efforts of clearing UXO and healing the land.

Event Details:

• Date: Friday, January 9, 2026

• Time: 16:00 – 18:00

• Location: Writers’ Association Publishing House, 65 Nguyen Du, Hanoi

• Registration: [Register via Book Hunter Form] 

All donations at the event will go directly to Project RENEW in support of our humanitarian work in Quang Tri Province.