Tuesday, May 15, 2012
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Dear friends,
I set up this website with the only aim to raise international awareness of the terrible consequences of agent orange in Vietnam. Therefore, I will not work as a mediator to transfer your money. But some friends did ask me about how to help, so I will show you some methods of contribution:
1. The best method that I whole-heartedly recommend to you is to visit the families of the victims, talk with them and hug them if you can, and offer them your gift (can be money, wheelchairs, a buffalo, medicine, food, clothes, blankets, or books, stationery for the children...). You can feel their happiness right away, and you will be sure that your gift is helpful to them. Your gift may be modest in value, but it is very significant if you can come and talk with them, show them your love and compassion!
I have found thousands of victims and their addresses here
http://danangquangnamfund.org/letters/index.ao.html
In Vietnamese, we say "your gift worths one coin, but your travelling worths a bullion" to appreciate the endeavor of the gift bearer.
In case you need help or guide to the location, I may be able to connect you to a volunteer, depend on the availability of the volunteer that I know.
2. Donate to the official Vietnam Association for Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange
11/41 Linh Lang, Cong Vi, Ba Đinh, Ha Noi
www.vava.portal.vinacomm.com.vn
email: nhandaovietnam@fpt.vn
3. Donate to Fund for Victims of Agent Orange or Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange Association - Vietnamese RedCross
82 Nguyen Du - Ha Noi
4. Donate to http://danangquangnamfund.org/home. They state in their commitment that:"100% of your donations go directly towards those most in need."
email: nhandaovietnam@fpt.vn
3. Donate to Fund for Victims of Agent Orange or Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange Association - Vietnamese RedCross
82 Nguyen Du - Ha Noi
4. Donate to http://danangquangnamfund.org/home. They state in their commitment that:"100% of your donations go directly towards those most in need."
Monday, July 25, 2011
Pains - By Ngũ Cung (The Pentatonic) Band
This Video Clip of Ngu Cung (The Pentatonic), a Vietnamese Rockband, is a rock ballad about the pains of Agent Orange that Vietnamese victims are suffering... some scenes are shot in Friendship Village....
Monday, May 30, 2011
Justice has been done for American veteran. When will it be done for Vietnamese victims?
Vietnamese people struggle with agent orange
Monday, May 16, 2011
US photographer raises money for Agent Orange victim -
A photo exhibition showcasing the painful life of a Vietnamese child suffering from disabilities caused by Agent Orange took place at 28 Tong Duy Tan in Hanoi on Sunday. (from tuoitre.com.vn)
Titled “Nu’s pain,” the exhibition featured 20 black and white photos about the life of Nu—an autistic child with hearing and visual impairments—taken over four years by American photographer Justin Mott.
Agent Orange is a defoliant that was sprayed extensively in Vietnam and Cambodia by U.S. forces during the war with America. The dioxins, which experts say are still in the soil of heavily sprayed areas, are suspected of effecting millions of Vietnamese and causing hundreds of thousands of birth defects.
Money from auctioning photos and ticket sales will be used for Nu’s physiotherapy treatment and medical care at the dioxin victims support center, Friendship Village.
Nu cannot hear, speak or see, and is autistic. Agent Orange is thought to have caused the mental illness of Nu's father, and she now lives with her grandparents.
Mott met Nu in 2007. He was born in Rhode Island, and now lives in Hanoi and is working throughout Southeast Asia. In 2008, his work on Agent Orange orphans won the annual photo contest from the America-based PDN magazine and he was awarded the Morty Forscher Fellowship for humanistic photography from the Parson’s school of Design in New York City.
Titled “Nu’s pain,” the exhibition featured 20 black and white photos about the life of Nu—an autistic child with hearing and visual impairments—taken over four years by American photographer Justin Mott.
Agent Orange is a defoliant that was sprayed extensively in Vietnam and Cambodia by U.S. forces during the war with America. The dioxins, which experts say are still in the soil of heavily sprayed areas, are suspected of effecting millions of Vietnamese and causing hundreds of thousands of birth defects.
Money from auctioning photos and ticket sales will be used for Nu’s physiotherapy treatment and medical care at the dioxin victims support center, Friendship Village.
Nu cannot hear, speak or see, and is autistic. Agent Orange is thought to have caused the mental illness of Nu's father, and she now lives with her grandparents.
Mott met Nu in 2007. He was born in Rhode Island, and now lives in Hanoi and is working throughout Southeast Asia. In 2008, his work on Agent Orange orphans won the annual photo contest from the America-based PDN magazine and he was awarded the Morty Forscher Fellowship for humanistic photography from the Parson’s school of Design in New York City.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
CHARITY EXHIBITION: SUNDAY MAY 15TH AT SOUTHGATE IN HANOI
By Justin Mott
I met Nu 3 years ago while I was researching a story about 3rd generation Agent Orange victims in Vietnam. With the help of my dear friend Mrs. Thuy from Trung Vuong school I visited the Friendship Village 30 minutes outside of central Hanoi. I was greeted by a bunch of joyous children tugging at my hand and proudly firing off all the English words they knew at me.
After the novelty of a foreign visitor wore off the children went back to playing soccer, skipping rope, and joking around on the playground. I wandered inside one of the large plain buildings labeled simply T5. The building was dark inside and as I closed the door the laughter of the children faded and I was drawn to a soft consistent humming.
Underneath a staircase, alone in the darkness, a little girl sat with her head buried in her chest, humming a tune over and over again, unaware that I was there. That was the first time I saw the girl named Nu who was to become an important part of my life.
I found out she was autistic, blind, mostly deaf, and mute. Seeing this child in complete isolation left me empty. I knew that moment I wanted to tell Nu’s story and I was certain doing so would somehow ease her suffering.
I’ve been documenting Nu’s life for 5 years on and off. Last year her time at the Friendship Village came to an end and she had to go back to live with her grandparents.
Her grandparents are extremely poor and elderly and they aren’t able to take care of her properly. They have reached out for help and want her to go back to live in the Friendship village where she can received physical therapy, medical treatment, and more intimate care.
With the help of Mrs. Thuy and Truong Vuong School, we are trying to fund Nu to return to her life at the Friendship Village. And for that we need your help.
Please join us at Southgate restaurant on Sunday May 15th at 4pm for a photography exhibition of Nu’s story along with an auction of my personal work photographing SE Asia for numerous international publications throughout SE Asia for over 6 years.
All proceeds from the event will go towards funding a better life for Nu at the Friendship Village.
Here is a direct link to Nu's story:
NU'S STORY
Please RSVP to me by email justinmott@mottvisuals.com so I can gauge how many people are coming and thanks so much for your help.
For those of you not in Hanoi and who can't attend don't worry you're not off the hook :). I'm going to sell a small number of editioned prints that will be available to be purchased directly online.
Thanks again,
Justin
___________
From Tuan
This is another photo of Nu that I took 6 years ago.
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1317391316049678589PhTCaY
http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/2883/1317391316049678589S425x425Q85.jpg
Thursday, July 05, 2007
BASIC FACTS ABOUT THE ISSUE OF AGENT ORANGE IN VIET NAM
Agent Orange, name given to the most effective chemical herbicide, or plant killer, sprayed by United States armed forces in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). It was created from an equal combination of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. It was called Agent Orange because of the color of the barrel in which it was shipped. Agent Orange contained extremely toxic byproducts known as dioxins. Exposure to dioxins has been associated with severe birth defects and certain rare cancers in humans.
More than 19 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed in South Vietnam between 1961 and 1970. About 12 percent of South Vietnam was stripped of foliage, and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers and innumerable Vietnamese were exposed to dioxins. Toxins that leaked into croplands and rivers around the sprayed areas also had long-term effects on the food supply of the country as a whole.
Around 3 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange, many of whom died while many others learned of the consequences only once they had children.
Most of these victims are living in difficulties with serious illnesses. Many families have four or five disabled children. Much worse, there are families in which all the children were born with deformities. These children are suffering from polio and mental retardation (27 percent); visual and hearing impairment (27 percent), immobility (19 percent) and other deformities. The number of disabled children who cannot take care of themselves accounts for 40.8 percent of the total.
More than 19 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed in South Vietnam between 1961 and 1970. About 12 percent of South Vietnam was stripped of foliage, and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers and innumerable Vietnamese were exposed to dioxins. Toxins that leaked into croplands and rivers around the sprayed areas also had long-term effects on the food supply of the country as a whole.
Around 3 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange, many of whom died while many others learned of the consequences only once they had children.
Most of these victims are living in difficulties with serious illnesses. Many families have four or five disabled children. Much worse, there are families in which all the children were born with deformities. These children are suffering from polio and mental retardation (27 percent); visual and hearing impairment (27 percent), immobility (19 percent) and other deformities. The number of disabled children who cannot take care of themselves accounts for 40.8 percent of the total.
Monday, July 02, 2007
“I WILL LIVE”, SHE SAID
Her letters, with its careful handwriting, arrive almost every month. I met Hai when pursuing a story on Agent Orange victims in Thai Binh province in July 2004. Ever since, the letters have told me a lot about her. A young woman’s confession on her efforts at “self-reformation”.
“Sometimes I wish I were blind, deaf or mute. So I don’t have to think and suffer anymore from the pains that Agent Orange has caused to my family.” Ha Thi Hai was born in 1976 in Thai Binh prvince, Northern Vietnam. She is the second daughter in the family. The only one who, until recently, was still able to go to school. Her father, a veteran, had no inkling that the fog which fell down from the planes in Quang Tri was going to contaminate his body. Agent Orange has accomplished its “mission” of silent destruction. It has been sown and grown into the bodies of his three children.
Hai had to quit school after 7th grade. Her health couldn’t keep up. She also felt bad about her deformed body. Ever since, she stays at home, spending her days trying to move her half-paralized hands and feet. She cooks and waits patiently for her father, brother and sister to come home.
“Daddy takes them to the fields with him to keep an eye on them. They look allright physically but they have absolutely no memory. Once they missed the path leading home and walked to the next hamlet. Little Ba cannot even re-plant the young paddy. Sometimes when she has her crises she rolls on the ground and even stomps on the stalks.
As to my brother his eyes start rolling when he’s about to have an attack. Then he chases me to hit me, all the while cursing. He has hit me many times but I only feel compassion for him. When the attack is over he takes me in his arms and we cry together. “
Of them all, Hai’s mother is the better off. That is, her health is the least shaky of all. She helps by selling vegetables on and off. Everything for her children.
Hai continues: “I have just learned what the doctors think of my case. They say that Agent Orange has affected my marrow and atrophied my muscles. It is inoperable and incurable. I am going to lose little by little the use of my limbs and not be able to move.” Convinced that it will relieve the family’s burden, Hai tried to kill herself. She swallowed some tablets, a lot of them. After her attempt at closure, the family has been helping her “reform herself”.
In her last letter, Hai wrote that, along with her brother and sister, she has been admitted to a physical rehabilitation center. “ We have had a lot of visitors. They told me I should make an effort to live.” Period. And a last sentence: “ I will.”
Le Thanh Thuy
(Suc khoe va Doi song)
“Sometimes I wish I were blind, deaf or mute. So I don’t have to think and suffer anymore from the pains that Agent Orange has caused to my family.” Ha Thi Hai was born in 1976 in Thai Binh prvince, Northern Vietnam. She is the second daughter in the family. The only one who, until recently, was still able to go to school. Her father, a veteran, had no inkling that the fog which fell down from the planes in Quang Tri was going to contaminate his body. Agent Orange has accomplished its “mission” of silent destruction. It has been sown and grown into the bodies of his three children.
Hai had to quit school after 7th grade. Her health couldn’t keep up. She also felt bad about her deformed body. Ever since, she stays at home, spending her days trying to move her half-paralized hands and feet. She cooks and waits patiently for her father, brother and sister to come home.
“Daddy takes them to the fields with him to keep an eye on them. They look allright physically but they have absolutely no memory. Once they missed the path leading home and walked to the next hamlet. Little Ba cannot even re-plant the young paddy. Sometimes when she has her crises she rolls on the ground and even stomps on the stalks.
As to my brother his eyes start rolling when he’s about to have an attack. Then he chases me to hit me, all the while cursing. He has hit me many times but I only feel compassion for him. When the attack is over he takes me in his arms and we cry together. “
Of them all, Hai’s mother is the better off. That is, her health is the least shaky of all. She helps by selling vegetables on and off. Everything for her children.
Hai continues: “I have just learned what the doctors think of my case. They say that Agent Orange has affected my marrow and atrophied my muscles. It is inoperable and incurable. I am going to lose little by little the use of my limbs and not be able to move.” Convinced that it will relieve the family’s burden, Hai tried to kill herself. She swallowed some tablets, a lot of them. After her attempt at closure, the family has been helping her “reform herself”.
In her last letter, Hai wrote that, along with her brother and sister, she has been admitted to a physical rehabilitation center. “ We have had a lot of visitors. They told me I should make an effort to live.” Period. And a last sentence: “ I will.”
Le Thanh Thuy
(Suc khoe va Doi song)
