Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
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The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF)[1], established in 1980, now the Veterans for America (VFA), is a Washington, D.C. based international humanitarian organization that addresses the consequences of war and conflict around the world. The president and founder of VVAF is Bobby Muller, a former US Marine lieutenant and Vietnam veteran.
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[edit] Background
In 1980 Co-Founders Bobby Muller and John Terzano came together with a goal to transform the American experience of the Vietnam War into a mission of compassion and justice. This idea became the heart of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
The first major initiative was an unprecedented journey back to Vietnam in 1981 to make peace with America’s former enemy. Because of that life-altering experience, VVAF began to lead reconciliation efforts that would ultimately result in lifting the U.S. trade embargo and normalizing relations with Vietnam. It is because of this advocacy that VVAF began a unique friendship with the Vietnamese that endures today.
Nearly a decade later, a 1991 trip to the horrific “killing fields” of Cambodia inspired VVAF to co-found and coordinate the phenomenal global campaign to ban landmines, called Campaign for A Landmine Free World, which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to galvanize nearly a third of the world’s countries to sign a treaty eradicating the use of antipersonnel landmines. Further, because of the trip to Cambodia, VVAF became one of the first humanitarian organizations in the world to offer rehabilitative services to landmine victims when we opened our flagship clinic on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in 1992.
The VVAF worked in more than a dozen countries providing services such as physical rehabilitation, information mapping and management, children and family development, refugee assistance, nuclear threat reduction and sport therapy and rehabilitation. Our many programs have helped hundreds of thousands in war-torn countries around the world lead better lives.
[edit] Projects
One of the VVAF's primary causes is their "Campaign for a Landmine Free World", which works to increase awareness about the world's landmine crisis. As of 2002, the VVAF operates programs in Angola, Cambodia, El Salvador, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Vietnam.
Since early 1998, VVAF's "Artists for a Landmine Free World", has drawn a number of top musical artists to the cause. Some of the program's most active members include Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Cockburn, Bruce Springsteen, and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
The VVAF was the co-founder of the International Campaign To Ban Landmines, which received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. The Peace Prize was awarded jointly to coordinator Jody Williams of the VVAF and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Loung Ung serves as National Spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.
[edit] Post-Conflict Rehabilitation
For many survivors of war, physical and emotional rehabilitation is greatly needed. VVAF's Post-Conflict Rehabilitation Program (PCR) provides support through product services, physical and emotional training, and sport rehabilitation. Our rehabilitation work exists in Angola, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Vietnam and supports rehabilitation and disability programs throughout Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of people who suffer from disabilities caused by war or debilitating diseases such as polio and clubfoot benefit every year from artificial limbs, braces and wheelchairs produced at VVAF clinics. In addition, patients are enrolled in physical therapy sessions where they develop the strength, flexibility and skills to become mobile again. VVAF’s community follow-up and outreach teams bring assistance to people where they live. And through the creation of self-help groups and the implementation of sports and recreation activities through our Sports for Life initiative, people develop the confidence, skills, and social networks necessary to become active participants in their societies.
[edit] Sports for Life
Sports for Life (SFL), a project of PCR, uses sport as a vehicle for bringing about positive changes in the lives of people with disabilities. The SFL program uses therapeutic and competitive sports to rehabilitate disabled persons in war-affected nations, helping them to build physical and social skills as well as develop the confidence to improve their own lives. SFL has conducted successful programs in Kosovo, Angola and Cambodia. In March, 2006 two athletic superstars, 2000 NFL MVP Ray Lewis and Paralympian Cheri Blauwet joined the Sports for Life Advisory Committee and traveled to Africa with VVAF to support and promote new developments in Ethiopia and Angola.
[edit] Information Management and Mine Action Programs
VVAF's Information Management and Mine Action Programs (iMMAP) is conducting work in post-conflict countries, including Iraq, Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to evaluate the impact of landmines and provide technical assistance to coordinate information necessary for relief and development. iMMAP started from the basic premise that implementing organizations, national authorities and donor governments needed to be able to define the global landmine problem's physical, social and economic dimensions as a prerequisite for effective planning, resource allocation and advocacy. Its efforts resulted in broad international acceptance of landmine survey standards and socio-economic measures of landmine/UXO impact. In the winter of 2005 and beginning of 2006, Tsunamis and earthquakes devastated much of Southeast Asia and Pakistan. iMMAP's information management support helped guide and maximize relief efforts by providing assistance in surveying hazardous and safe routes for transportation, supplies and locations for shelter. In January of 2006, an iMMAP survey of more than 10,000 Iraqi communities found that one in five areas in northern and southern Iraq are endangered by landmines and other unexploded ordnance.
[edit] Nuclear Threat Reduction
VVAF’s Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign (NTRC) educates and mobilizes key constituencies to advance U.S. public policy on a bipartisan basis that reduces the threats posed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In late 2005, NTRC was largely responsible for the rejection of a government bill that would have allowed a robust nuclear earth penetrator (RNEP), commonly known as the "bunker buster" - to be used to destroy enemy facilities, such as command posts or depots for weapons of mass destruction built far below the earth's surface.
[edit] War Kids Relief and Returnee Integration Support
VVAF's newest programs, War Kids Relief and Returnee Integration Support Program launched in November 2005. War Kids Relief, led by former Iraq veteran and captain Jon Powers, helps the children of Iraq rebound and recover from the disruptive effects of war and five them hope for a better future. The program works to improve the physical conditions of existing housing facilities and provide training to orphanage directors and caregivers, integrate children back into save family environments, and Construct a Baghdad Career and Life Skills Center to provide a safe haven for older children (age 12-18) and give them a place to learn vital job and life training skills to help them become productive members of society.
[edit] Returnee Integration Support
Returnee Integration Support Program (RISP) helps Cambodian refugees readjust to Cambodia's lifestyle and culture. Through its services the program provides orientation, assistance with employment and housing, drug, alcohol and HIV education, Khmer literacy classes, counseling and referral services, in order to support returnees who seek assistance in becoming independent and productive members of society.
