More models on education, vocational training, employment and resettlement support, and community integration will be carried out in areas contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO) as part of efforts to create sustainable livelihoods for Vietnamese victims of bombs and mines. Chairman of the Vietnam Bombs and Mines Action Support Association (VBMASA) Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Duc Soat said at a conference in Hanoi on December 24 to review the association’s operation over the past five years that the organization will pay attention to improving the efficiency of livelihood support for the victims in the coming time. It will coordinate with charitable and humanitarian organizations to expand the above-mentioned models, and provide medical checkups and treatment for poor and people with disabilities, victims of bombs, mines and Agent Orange/dioxin in targeted, remote and ethnic minority areas, he said. Campaigns will be promoted to raise public awareness of preventing and overcoming post-war consequences, he added. According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs, Vietnam is one of countries most contaminated with UXOs. It is estimated that about 800,000 tons of UXOs were left across the country after the war ended in 1975, mostly in the central region. Some 6.13 million hectares of land are polluted with or suspected of being polluted with UXOs, accounting for 18.82% of the country’s total area. Since 1975, UXO incidents have killed more than 40,000 people and injured 60,000 others, most of whom were breadwinners of their families or children. (VOV)
