Quảng Trị, August 2026
Mr. Chuck Searcy, co-founder of Project RENEW and representative of VVMF in Vietnam, and Mr. Hoàng Đăng Mai, Chief of the Foreign Affairs Division, Office of the Quảng Trị Provincial People’s Committee, cut the ribbon to launch Project RENEW. Đông Hà. 15 August 2021.
On 15 August 2001, a small team began work in Quảng Trị with a single purpose: to help families live safely on land that still held the explosive remnants of a war that had ended a generation earlier. That was the beginning of Project RENEW.
Ms. Edel Cribbin and colleagues from the Embassy of Ireland, together with staff of the RENEW Center, visit the family of Mr. Hồ Văn Y, a UXO survivor near the former Tà Cơn Airbase. Khe Sanh, 26 May 2026.
Twenty-five years later, that work goes on.
In a quarter of a century, the confirmed hazardous land across the province has been surveyed field by field, and more than half of it has now been cleared and given back to the farmers who depend on it. More than 3,000 people, many living with the lasting effects of the war, have received prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation. Children have learned to recognize and stay away from unexploded ordnance at the Project RENEW Mine Action Visitor Center. Survivors and people with disabilities have built livelihoods that provide for entire families.
None of this has been the work of one organization alone. From the first day, Project RENEW has been carried by the people of Quảng Trị and by friends around the world who believed this land could be made safe again.
Among those friends, Friends of Project RENEW, our support group in the United States, has launched a campaign to mark the anniversary: “$25 for 25 Years.” Every gift helps teach a child to stay safe and restore mobility to a survivor.
The danger is far smaller than it once was. It is not yet gone. As we mark 25 years, we are not only looking back at what has been done, but forward to the day when no family in Quảng Trị has to fear the ground beneath their feet.
To support the next 25 years, visit Friends of Project RENEW.
