Dinh Thi Be Co and Dinh Van Hoai Nguu are children of a Hre couple living in An Hung commune, An Lao district, Binh Dinh province – a remote area in the South_Central Coast region of Viet Nam. Both fell UXO victims about five years ago when they were playing at their school.

 “The accident happened when Nguu was only 8 years old and his sister Co is 10 when they were at school.” She paused some seconds and continued: “On that day, my husband and I were working far from home. I could not believe my ears when their teacher called me and said that: “Your children got a bomb accident”.. My husband tried to drive his old bike as fast as possible to the district hospital. My children were in the emergency room. Nguu had bandages around most of his body - his eyes, ears, head, abdomen, legs and arms were all injured. Co’s arms were broken, and eyes were protruded. They had to stay in hospital for months”.

They were unfortunate to get an accident caused by a hidden bomb near the school at break time. Nguu face many challenges in learning due to limited vision and hearing ability, but he loves going to school very much. In school year 2020-2021, Nguu will go to grade 8. Even he often has a headache, cannot remember the lessons; his right eye has blurred vision, the left eye is blind; the legs are quite weak, cannot walk fast but Nguu never come to school late. His thumb was injured broken, now twisted so he found it is difficult to write. In his abdomen, legs, body, there are still shrapnel, not yet removed all. Few months ago, Nguu felt down and broke his left arm and was in a cast while taking the year- end Physical exercise exam. One of his ears now has pus and infection.

Co was injured more lightly, her family believed that she was completed recovered. However, some months ago, Co was unconscious at school, and she was discovered to have a heart valve.

For Nguu and Co’s family, they have always hoped their children can receive comprehensive physical exams and have better health to continue their studying. 

The family are living in a small house. Their parents go around districts in Binh Dinh to earn money by cutting acacia trees and other daily labor jobs. Due to the spread of coronavirus, the parents could not work and lost their incomes. In addition, the mother had to take both Nguu and Co to hospital for examination and treatment. As such, the family lost haft of their income and had to borrow money for the children’s medical treatment.

In response to the needs of the UXO survivors in Quang Binh and Binh Dinh provinces, from May to September 2020, Korea-Vietnam Mine Action Project (KVMAP) supported the UXO survivors with an essential package of food, masks, and hand wash. Nguu and Co’s family is one of them. More happily, with support of KVMAP, Nguu is one of the 4 EO survivors who have been diagnosed with surgery operation for receiving prosthetic devices in Binh Dinh to improve their accessibility, together with more than 100 other EO survivors. Nguu now can walk more firmly on his foot and feels more confident in his daily life and study in school. 

To ensure girls and boys like Nguu and Co to have better knowledge and practical skills to avoid similar landmine accidents, the EORE component has helped to organize Radio broadcasting at the communes and integrate EORE into school curriculums as well as school extra-curriculum activities such as plays, drawing contests, quizzes and gameshows. Thanks to these activities, more than 200,000 school children in Quang Binh and Binh Dinh provinces have learnt about EO risks and have basic know-how skills to cope with mines and UXO situations.