Cam Lo and Dong Ha, Quang Tri (March 17, 2022) — The RENEW team today was honored to host Mr. Seán Farrell, Development Counselor of Irish Embassy in Vietnam during his working visit to Quang Tri Province. March 17, 2022 is St. Patrick’s Day, which is also the National Day of Ireland.
On Thursday morning, the Embassy delegation traveled to Cam Nghia Commune, Cam Lo District to observe an explosive ordnance risk education session co-organized by RENEW and Youth Union in Bang Son 3 Sub-school of Cam Nghia Primary and Secondary School.
“One of the legacies of the war is the amount of unexploded ordnance that still hurts and kills people and unfortunately in many communes here,” Mr. Seán Farrell spoke to 60 primary schoolchildren of Bang Son 3 sub-school who were present at the risk education session. “We are very happy in the Embassy of Ireland to support partners here to try to stop the problem of people getting hurt by unexploded ordnance,” Mr. Farrell said.
The risk education session aimed at reinforcing the awareness of explosive ordnance risks of children and adults in Cam Nghia Commune where an explosion of explosive ordnance killed a 43-year-old farmer in Phuong An 1 Village on February 16 — the first casualty in Quang Tri Province after four years.
The delegation later paid a visit to Cam Nghia Commune Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children. Thanks to funding from Irish Aid, RENEW has helped reactivate the Rehab Center after three years of having to shrink its operations, downsize its staff, and reduce its level of care due to lack of funding.
The Cam Nghia Rehab Center now provides rehabilitation and daycare for 20 severely disabled children suffering from slow development, cerebral palsy, visual and hearing impairments, and other impairments. Cam Nghia Commune is one of several locations in Quang Tri Province heavily sprayed with Agent Orange and other herbicides during the war.
Funding from Irish Aid through Irish Embassy in Vietnam has enabled RENEW to sustain two important pillars of mine action — explosive ordnance risk education and victim assistance/disability support — since 2015 and 2016 respectively.
