Project RENEW was founded in August 2001 by the government of Quang Tri Province and international NGOs as an effort to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by cluster bombs and other munitions remaining in Quang Tri Province in central Vietnam, since the war ended in 1975.

Today Project RENEW’s primary partner is Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), one of the most respected international organizations in the field of humanitarian disarmament.  Currently, Project RENEW is embracing the following pillars of mine action:

Our priority is cleaning up cluster munitions and other ERW that litter the countryside, farms and fields, and neighborhoods in villages and towns of the province.

Other interventions are victim assistance for disabled families with one or more bomb accident survivors; and risk education for children and adults – safety awareness – which has helped reduce bomb accidents over the years.

Cleanup of every bomb and mine in Vietnam is impossible.  It can’t be done – and it’s not necessary.  The real goal, and achievable goal, must be to make Quang Tri safe – which means putting in place a solid, proven management system that will keep ordinary people safe in all areas where residual unexploded bombs are found. With support from NPA, we are implementing a land release methodology – the cluster munitions remnants survey – which allows us to identify hazardous areas that need full clearance. In an estimated ten years, we can clear all confirmed hazardous areas in Quang Tri Province.

Meanwhile, Mine Risk Education must continue to reinforce safety consciousness and knowledge among the local population, so they will know how to protect themselves and protect their families and neighbors from ERW.  And they become part of the solution, by pinpointing locations of bombs for quick response by our teams.

The RENEW mine action model is designed to solve the problem — that is, to manage the long-term threat of unexploded bombs using local staff, local skills, local institutions and resources.

Agent Orange is now being addressed through cooperation between the government of Vietnam and the U.S. government.  Dioxin cleanup of key hotspots is underway.  Support and interventions, in the homes of severely disabled persons suffering from problems related to Agent Orange, is the next step in bringing closure to this painful tragedy.  Project RENEW, using the experience of over two decades, is preparing to step up to that challenge as well.