As our supporters savor a steaming cup of coffee they can take both pride and comfort from the knowledge that their purchase of Lao Mountain Coffee pays the wages of the brave Lao men and women who locate and destroy explosive remnants of war. To order Lao Mountain Coffee contact us at: jimharris1833@gmail.com We...
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Half of our annual budget is funded by selling Lao coffee. Everybody wins: the farmer, the coffee lover and, most importantly, the villagers who have their land cleared of UXO.
Sometimes we can quickly destroy UXO. But bombs found within a village take extensive planning.
In an effort to help our supporters understand why our thirteen-person team could not immediately “render safe” the 750 bomb that we identified in a village, I’ve compiled a list of the steps that staff must follow when assisting a village that is threatened...
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“Mr. Magnet” was a rarity: a self-trained, self-proclaimed village bomb expert who gave his trade a good name.
Most provinces in Laos are underserved by humanitarian clearance organizations. Given the rate at which unexploded ordnance (UXO) is being rendered safe the bombs, rockets, motors, bullets and shells that blight 2,500 villages here will outlive every human now living on our planet. But…in...
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Three Different Sites. Three Different Challenges.
Three days in the field and each day a different challenge. I keep telling myself, “If this job was easy, what would they need us for?” The first day, we might as well have been working on a paved parking lot. The landowner, in...
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On A Cold Day, To Keep Myself Moving, I Check Hundreds Of Tree Stumps For UXO. Guess What I Found?
Today is the coldest, windiest day yet. The guys are all bundled up in their warmest gear; some wearing ski masks. I’ve got to investigate why two or three of the fellows are working in just shirtsleeves. If they owned warmer clothing they’d be...
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President Obama Pledges Support For Increased Help To Laos But, Will Long-neglected Provinces Get Help? They’ve Waited Over Forty Years
We Help War Victims, Inc. is calling for the US State Department Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement to advocate that future US funding be distributed in a manner that benefits all contaminated provinces. Here’s a map showing the pattern of bombing in Phongsali...
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Twenty-thousand killed or injured but millions live with fear.
There have been over 20,000 civilian casualties to leftover ordnance in Laos, since the war ended forty years ago. But the most debilitating injury inflicted on the nation as a whole is the fear that affects individual and collective decision-making. Twenty thousand men, women...
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Women’s Day in Laos: Our interview with four female deminers who have put their lives at risk to keep others safe!
Interview with four female deminers: Kik, Davine, Omphon and Nuey Conducted in Phongsali Province, March, 2011 Yai Please introduce yourself. Davine: Good morning. My name is Davine. I come from Ban Houayho village. I am 19 years old. I have four brothers and sisters....
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We lose patience waiting for someone else to destroy a dangerous piece of ordnance.
Several years back I watched child scrap collectors use rudimentary metal detectors to search for bomb fragments that they could sell to garner spending money. The kids’ behavior around unexploded ordnance was reckless and, like most youths around the world, they defined an accident...
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