Staying Fit
“Take the time to become grounded in your vision and your purpose. Then, call people you never imagined calling so that you can meet and generate connections.”
In 1995, when I was 52, I started this work with my late husband and my mother, in an effort to heal the legacy of the Vietnam War — my mother called it “turning sorrow into service.” In partnership with the Vietnamese people, PeaceTrees Vietnam is working to clear land mines and other unexploded ordnance from the most war-torn areas in the central provinces, return the land to safe use and build bridges of trust, respect and understanding between our countries.
The problem I’m trying to solve
The aftermath of war is tragic. In central Vietnam thousands of people continue to live with the risks that unexploded munitions, bombs, grenades and ordnance pose to their lives and livelihood. We’re working to reverse the consequences of war, to transform adversarial relationships into partnerships and to restore communities by safely clearing the land. We have worked in the most heavily bombed areas of Vietnam to safely remove dangerous explosives, to support accident survivors and to honor the losses on all sides of the war.
Our 25 years of work alongside the people of Vietnam has brought extraordinary results. We have removed and destroyed nearly 120,000 items of unexploded ordnance, cleared nearly 2,000 acres of land, enabled volunteers to plant more than 50,000 native trees on the cleared land and provided mine-risk safety education to approximately 140,000 people. As a result, children in these areas can now walk to school safely and communities can grow food on the land. What’s more, we have built schools, libraries, community centers and family homes for accident victims.
