Hai Lang, Quang Tri (22 February 2021) – Explosive ordnance survey and clearance teams managed by Project RENEW/Norwegian People’s Aid resumed normal work today by taking part in a refresher training on a battle clearance site in Hai Lang District, after the Lunar New Year holiday.
In Hai An Commune, all the field staff of RENEW/NPA reviewed the Standard Operating Procedures and methods of investigating signals during survey and clearance. Such refresher training was essential to make sure no important skills or knowledge had been lost due to a long break for Tết, aka Vietnamese lunar new year festival.
Considering the COVID-19 situation in Vietnam, which hasn’t been totally controlled yet, RENEW/NPA has requested all office and field staff to strictly adhere to government advice on social distancing to avoid infection. Accordingly, the staff are obliged to wear masks all the time at work, take temperature checks, wash hands with sanitizers, and the field teams apply shifting arrival and departure times. These procedures have ensured that all 240 RENEW/NPA staff in Quang Tri have stayed safe during the pandemic, with no cases of COVID-19!
The survey and clearance operations of Project RENEW in cooperation with Norwegian People’s Aid Vietnam in Quang Tri Province are funded by the U.S. Department of State and UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.
Project RENEW was established in 2001 as a joint effort between the government of Quang Tri Province and interested INGOs to “restore the environment and neutralize the effects of the war”.
Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) has worked in Vietnam since 2007 and collaborated with national and provincial authorities to implement capacity development, survey and clearance projects in Hanoi, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Binh provinces.
