Mr. Tâm weeds his cassava between rows of young rubber trees, on land just cleared.

His family’s 1,500 m² of land sat inside Confirmed Hazardous Area (CHA) 0885. On it, Tâm grows rubber, intercropped with peanut, cassava and yam to earn income while waiting for the rubber trees to be ready for tapping. The last peanut harvest brought the family 12 million VND (US$460). His wife, Nguyễn Thị Hương, makes cassava starch and hand-rolls incense at home for extra income. The couple has two sons: one drives a taxi, the other is a student at Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry.

“It feels safe. I feel a real joy now that the land has been cleared of unexploded ordnance,” Tâm said.

Mr. Tâm helps his wife, Nguyễn Thị Hương, dry incense in the front yard.

On 6 May, NPA/RENEW handed over two areas (CHA 0884 and CHA 0885, totaling 2,482,460 m²) to the local authorities, returning safe land to 3,014 people in Thuỷ Trung. During clearance, the teams found and dealt with 655 items of explosive ordnance, of which 347 were cluster munitions.

Right next to the two handed-over areas, the teams are now clearing CHA 0881 in Xóm Nỗng village, Cửa Tùng commune (1,349,662 m²), which began on 20 April and is due for completion on 30 September 2026. So far they have cleared 777,765 m², more than half, and found 336 explosive items.

Two NPA/RENEW team members search for ordnance with a large-loop detector.

Every square meter cleared of explosive ordnance is another peanut crop, another cassava crop, sown without fear.

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