On Wednesday, July 11, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Vientiane, Laos, marking the first time an active U.S. Secretary of State has visited the country since 1955. Several organizations joined together in encouraging the visit in order to make long-term commitments towards addressing the crisis caused by unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over by U.S. bombings during the Vietnam War era. It is estimated that one third of Lao land is still littered with UXO from 40 years ago, and 20,000 people have been killed or maimed by UXO since the bombings ended. A recently approved increase, from 2.6 million to $9 million in 2012 from the U.S. will be directed at clearing the land for farming and development.
As part of my work with World Education, I will be implementing UXO Education and Awareness in Primary Schools and with the help of the McKnight Foundation, surveying the needs of UXO accident survivors and providing them with economic assistance. In addition to economic assistance, SETA (Survivors' Economic and Technical Assistance) provides vocational aid to land mine survivors through medical care, training courses, small business startup support and follow-up technical assistance. So, with Hillary's visit, the efforts of World Education are making global headlines and hopefully the seeds of sustainable change are being sewn.
In historic visit, Clinton reaches out to Laos - Boston.com
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