USA Today article

Click on the link to read more... Disability fight over Agent Orange revisited

Fundraiser

Now that the busy summer/fall work and personal travel are over, the wheels are in motion again. Planning is underway for an event in early 2008. Stay tuned...

Second AO Plaintiff Passes Away

IntellAsia has the story:

Vietnamese Agent Orange victims who are suing US companies that produced the chemical passed away in HCM City Friday July 20. Nguyen Thi Hong died at the ulcer and tumor hospital.

The 60-year-old woman is the second of a four-member delegation to pass away since returning home from a US trip last month where it fought court battles and held public meetings in connection with the US's use of the dioxin during the war with the US.
More

AO Spokesman Passes Away

Nguyen Van Quy, one of the four Vietnamese plaintiffs in the AO case currently in the U.S. courts, has passed away. More.

Ashley and Kacey

Ashley and Kacey are back in the U.S. They have returned with some additional artwork and photos so the fundraiser should move forward from here. With several work trips coming up and Ashley not set to move to NYC until October, the fundraiser is still some months off but the wheels are spinning.

Volunteer Tourism

I recently wrote an article for away.com about volunteer tourism, focusing on our trip to the AO group home last year.

You can read it here: A Small Gesture: Eyewitness Voluntourism in Vietnam

Chicago Tribune on AO

The Chicago Tribune has an article about the recent visit to the U.S. by some of the plaintiffs in the AO case currently in the courts:

Nguyen Thi Hong, 60, is in the last stages of terminal breast cancer, her legs covered in a scabby rash.

Nguyen Van Quy, 52, weighs just 83 pounds because of his stomach cancer. At home in Vietnam, his two children are severely disabled and a third child died of congenital defects soon after birth.

Hong and Quy, along with two other Vietnamese citizens, are stopping in four American cities, including Chicago, this week to drum up awareness for their illnesses, which they say were caused by Agent Orange, a defoliant the U.S. sprayed on the Vietnam landscape during the Vietnam War.
More

There is also a video of a U.S. Vietnam War Veteran advocating on behalf of the Vietnamese plaintiffs.

(h/t Viet Q)

VOA Article on AO

President Nguyen Minh Triet has wrapped up his visit to the United States. He returns to Vietnam with the promise of increased help on the issue of AO from President Bush.

For many years, the United States rejected Vietnamese appeals for compensation for these victims, saying claims that diseases were caused by Agent Orange were not supported scientifically.

But recently, the U.S. has increased funding for medical aid to people with disabilities in Vietnam, and the U.S. Congress has appropriated $3 million for cleanup and treatment of dioxin-related illnesses.
More

in Danang

Kacey and Ashley spent Friday at two different group homes in Danang. Read more on Kacey's blog.

Earthtimes.org

Earthtimes has an informative article on the growing movement to address AO issues.

Ford Foundation Supports AO Work

The Ford Foundation has announced it is giving $7.5 million to support AO initiatives:

More than thirty years after the mountains and coasts of south and central Vietnam were sprayed with millions of gallons of Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides by US military forces, a joint American-Vietnamese humanitarian initiative has been launched to support the growing movement to resolve this remaining legacy of the war. The joint initiative comes just days before Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet is scheduled to visit the White House on the first visit of a Vietnamese head of state since the conflict ended.
More information in the Press Release

Intellasia on the AO Lawsuit

Intellasia files the following report in their daily news email:

...Jonathan Moore, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the chemical companies knew that the "agent orange" herbicide containing dioxin was harmful but did nothing. "They knew how it was going to be used and they had reason to believe the effect would be disastrous and they did it anyway," Moore told the panel of three judges for the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals. "We are now seeing years later the fruit of that terrible poisonous product."
More

BBC article

BBC has posted an article about the pending Agent Orange lawsuit as well as President Triet's visit to the U.S.:

A US court has been hearing an appeal by Vietnamese plaintiffs about the use of Agent Orange by American forces during the Vietnam War.

They hope to overturn a 2005 ruling by a lower court that decided there was no proof Agent Orange caused ill health.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of more than three million Vietnamese, is seeking compensation from companies that manufactured the chemical.

The hearing comes as Vietnam's leader makes a landmark visit to the US.

President Nguyen Minh Triet is first Vietnamese head of state to make the trip to the US since the war ended in the 1970s.

The court was told he was expected to discuss the Agent Orange case and the effects of the chemical with US President George W Bush when they meet later in the week.
More

to Danang

Ashley and Kacey are currently on an overnight train to Danang. Follow their trip here.

NY Times Op-Ed

Danielle Trussoni has an Op-Ed in Monday's New York Times:

...Today the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan, is scheduled to hear oral arguments against Dow, Monsanto and 35 other companies that manufactured Agent Orange and related herbicides used during the Vietnam War. In addition, 16 appeals by American veterans will be heard, as well as an appeal by a group that represents Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.

The veterans and the Vietnamese are seeking the reinstatement of lawsuits dismissed in March 2005 by Judge Jack Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The plaintiffs are asking the court to acknowledge that Agent Orange has damaged the lives of thousands of people in both the United States and Vietnam.

One of the Vietnamese civilians taking part in this appeal is a woman named Dang Hong Nhut, who lived in Cu Chi during the war, the very same part of Vietnam where my father spent his tour. After losing numerous babies to miscarriage and deformity, Dang Hong Nhut sent a biopsy abroad for analysis. The results showed that, years after the war, her body still retained traces of dioxin. In a television interview, she said: “It doesn’t matter if the companies won’t admit their crimes. What really counts is that people see that a crime took place.”

It has been eight years since I went to Vietnam, and I am just starting to understand that my trip was less about changing the past, an impossible pursuit by any stretch of the imagination, and more about taking the time to understand and recognize the mistakes of the Vietnam War. Perhaps now, after 40 years, the victims of Agent Orange will finally get such recognition.

to Vietnam!

Ashley and Kacey are off to Vietnam on Saturday morning. After a stop in Saigon, they will move north to Danang. Kacey is blogging regularly here.

Ashley and Kacey are both art teachers who have already raised several hundred dollars for Vietnamese children suffering from the effects of Agent Orange. Next week, they will visit with some of the children they have helped and kindly spend some time working with them on art projects.

Blog

Kacey, Ashley's friend who is traveling with her, is keeping a blog of their travels to Thailand and Vietnam. Read more here.

AO article in the New York Sun

Here's an excerpt:

A federal appeals court will soon hear oral arguments in lawsuits brought by citizens of Vietnam and American Vietnam War veterans who say their health has suffered from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

The appeals are being brought under a variety of legal theories, and the court could arrive at opposite conclusions about whether the Vietnamese or American plaintiffs may go forward with their claims against the chemical companies that manufactured Agent Orange.
More

Ashley to Danang

Our friend Ashley left yesterday, June 11, for Thailand and Vietnam. Ashley is an artist and art teacher in Ohio and will be visiting the group home in Danang to spend a couple of days working with the children. Photos should be posted in the coming weeks.

700,000

Nearly three-quarters of a million people have signed an online petition in support of victims of Agent Orange.

More.

The Last Ghost of War

More on the recently released film, The Last Ghost of War:

...Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, the legacy of Agent Orange still tortures the Southeast Asian land. In a 57-minute film, Gardner and co-producer Pham Quoc Thai examine the defoliant’s harrowing impact on three generations of Vietnamese, following the story onto a new battlefield, a class-action lawsuit brought by aggrieved Vietnamese against 32 U.S. chemical companies...
Link

If you live in NYC, the film will be screened at the Asia Society in the coming weeks.

AO Compensation in Canada

Those exposed to Agent Orange near an air base in Canada to receive compensation:

Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson says to expect a compensation package for those affected by sprayings of Agent Orange or other harmful herbicides at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown...
Link

AO Roundtable at Columbia

From the SIPA events newsletter:

The Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy

Lecture: Agent Orange and the Environment—From Research to Remediation on the Consequences of Chemical Warfare
Speaker: Dr. Boi, a forestry and GIS specialist with the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Please RSVP by 3/25 to jeb2118@columbia.edu

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
IAB, Room 1101
*Lunch will be served

James Nachtwey

A photojournalism piece on Agent Orange is up for a National Magazine Award:

Photographer James Nachtwey photographed two stories nominated in the "Photojournalism" category, one in National Geographic (for his piece on military medicine in Iraq) and one in Vanity Fair (for his piece on the effects of Agent Orange).
more

You can see Nachtwey's Vanity Fair photo essay here.

It accompanies a Christopher Hitchers article, The Vietnam Syndrome.

Photo of the week

Art class at the AO Group Home in Danang that Helping Hands will be donating all proceeds to:


(Photo by HH)

High School Students Raise Money for AO Victims

In Portland, Oregon, students at Gresham High School hope to raise $1,000 to send to an orphanage in Vietnam that cares for children affected by Agent Orange:

This year, much of their attention has been focused on Vietnam, and the lasting effects of Agent Orange.

Agent Orange is the nickname for a powerful herbicide and defoliant the U.S. military used between 1961 and 1971 during the Vietnam War.

Chemicals found in the compound cause a wide range of health problems and birth defects.

In addition to hosting an information night with a presentation by a Vietnam veteran, the students did presentations in the other classes at the school, showing a video clip about Agent Orange to the students to help raise awareness of the issue.

Club members hope to raise $1,000 to send to an orphanage in Vietnam to help children who are still experiencing the effects of Agent Orange, Kim said.

Article on AO in Science magazine

Agent Orange's Bitter Harvest.

An excerpt: "New findings paint a more sinister picture of the Vietnam War herbicide; scientists are trying to revive an epic study of its effects on U.S. veterans and clarify its legacy in Vietnam."

Read more.

(Hat tip Professor C)

Article on the AO lawsuit

Viet Q has the details.

Video

Here is a good news clip produced by ABC (Australia) that someone has uploaded to YouTube. It highlights the ongoing effect of Agent Orange in Vietnam as well as the lawsuit brought against chemical companies responsible for manufacturing Agent Orange that is currently moving through the U.S. court system.

NPR

Take a listen to this NPR piece, The Legacy of Agent Orange, from November 2006.

Read some letters

The Danang Quang Nam Fund has been collecting and translating letters from people affected by Agent Orange in Vietnam. Thus far, they have received over 4,000, mostly from Thai Binh province.

Go have a read. They are heart-wrenching.

Here's an excerpt from one:

However, after coming back from the war we had one more child in 1980. Unfortunately, she was abnormal. She's only 13 kilos weight, keeps crying days and nights. I went to have her cured, but it was useless because the doctors all said that she was born mentally retarded. She was blind, paralyzed. She realized nothing about the world around her. I was so sad to know that dioxin from her father's body had passed to hers causing her diseases.

Now she is 25 years old, but she is only a child. She knows nothing except crying. I have to help her with everything in her daily activities. My family, therefore, meets with too many difficulties.

Noodlepie

Thanks Pieman.

Donations

If you choose to donate, please visit the Danang Quang Nam Fund website, or visit Just Give. Specify that you want your money to go to the Agent Orange group home ('Peace Village') in Danang by mentioning "Helping Hands."

Remember $1 USD = ~16,000 VND. Every dollar counts. Instead of buying starbucks and a bagel this morning, give $5USD. If you do, every kid at the home will get a pack of crayons.

Give $10 USD and a child eats for a months.

Give $30 USD and a child can be housed at the Peace Village for 3 months.

Give $40 USD and a child can be taken care of during the day for 6 months.

To help put U.S. prices in perspective when I lived in Vietnam, I used to make the calculation, "How many bowls of Pho would that buy?" Once I saw concert tickets on Ebay selling for $8,000 USD. I remember thinking, "$8,000 USD would be 24,000 bowls of Pho." Think about your donation this way. Spend $10 USD in Manhattan and you might get a decent cocktail; donate $10 USD to the Peace Village and a child will eat for a month.

U.S. gives $400,000 USD

A small step forward:

The money will be used to help pay for a $1 million study on how to remove dioxin from the soil at the former U.S. base in Danang, one of three Agent Orange hotspots recognized by the U.S. government. Dioxin is a highly toxic ingredient of Agent Orange, a herbicide U.S. forces used to strip away foliage from jungles during the Vietnam War.

...

The grant marks an important symbolic step toward resolving an issue that has long divided the two former foes, whose relationship has grown steadily closer in recent years.
More

Da Cam, the film

Vu Tran, the director of Da Cam kindly donated several DVDs for our fundraiser. Da Cam, literally 'Orange Skin', is a touching film about Vietnamese living in and around Danang suffering from the effects Agent Orange. Highlighted in the film is the work of Professor Herrmann and the Danang Quang Nam Fund. Professor Herrmann has been very helpful in our efforts as well.

Helping Hands VN in the News

Awhile back, before we had a blog, Helping Hands was featured in the Vietnamese newspaper, Tuoi Tre. Unless you speak Vietnamese, you won't understand a word but you will see the photo that gave the fundraiser its name. Trying to decide on a name for our event, we settled on Helping Hands Vietnam because of a painting by one of the children at the group home. Featuring two clasped hands, one representing Vietnam and one representing the U.S., we thought it perfectly captured the nature of our event: Vietnamese and U.S. citizens working together.

Tet

For those of you in New York, check out the Tet celebration at 113 Baxter St on Sunday at 4pm.

If you aren't in NYC, Andrea Nguyen at Viet World Kitchen has a great post about Tet, including how to find an event near you, assuming you live in the U.S.

NYC Event

John Jay College, at 59th and 10th, is currently running a photo exhibit by Japanese photographer Goro Nakamura highlighting both American and Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange. More from Vietnam News.

Film: The Last Ghost of War

Footage on Vietnamese AO victims’ lawsuit to be shown:

NEW YORK — A documentary entitled The Last Ghost of War which depicts Vietnamese Agent Orange (AO) victims’ lawsuit against American chemical producers, is scheduled to be screened in the US, in late February.

Pham Quoc Thai, an overseas Vietnamese, who worked on the Janet Gardner directed 57-minute piece, said that the documentary focuses on the three groups of people exposed to Agent Orange, Vietnamese victims, American war veterans and ex-workers at US chemical factories.
War veterans, lawyers and historians in both Viet Nam and the US would also appear in the documentary to help provide a thorough insight into the use of the defoliant used by the US military during the Viet Nam war, Thai said.