[Google translation, sorry folks, but short on time tonight :) - youll get the idea]: VIETNAM STILL HURTING TO FOUR DECADES OF BEING ATTACKED BY U.S. Nearly four decades after the end of the war, thousands of Vietnamese still suffer illness and disability related to Agent Orange , the toxic defoliant sprayed by U.S. troops. Duc Nghia Tran , a Vietnamese 34-year resident in the coastal city of Danang , lies on his bed , motionless , staring , until his mother enters and places it in a rickety chair with a potty trailer. Even the 10 year old was a normal kid , good student , very active, but started talking more and more slowly , his movements became increasingly sloppy , muscles atrophied and deformed bones . Two years later , he could hardly move a chair and now is unable to speak or to move her limbs , thin as wire , and spends his days bedridden , communicating with his mother snorting moans and she has learned to interpret. Nghia is one of the 3 million Vietnamese affected since 1975 by dioxin , the deadly poison hidden in the 70 million liters of Agent Orange sprayed by U.S. troops , according to the local Red Cross . Since the end of the war, at least 150 000 children were born with deformities and physical limitations related to this substance , considered the most lethal poison created by man and can be embedded in the genetic code for several generations. Although the U.S. government has never explicitly recognized the perverse effects of the defoliant on Vietnamese health for lack of definitive evidence , American veterans affected by diseases such as leukemia , multiple types of lymphoma , Parkinsons and other various kinds of diabetes receive financial compensation. Instead Vietnamese victims were forgotten for years and the best receive a disability pension from the Government of Hanoi and the help of victims associations . Of the 5000 families who have booked in Danang , we can help around 500 with a pension of ten or twenty dollars a month . The Government gives a maximum of $ 100 , depending on the case , said Phan Thanh Tien , vice president of Association for Victims of Agent Orange Danang , one of the most affected areas . Thanks to donations from all over the world , this NGO has set up two centers that spends the day a hundred children with various disabilities linked to dioxin . Small sew , do crafts , learn to take care of a garden adjoining and perform more advanced reading and writing exercises . Unfortunately we can only cater for children with milder disabilities . We planned another for victims with more severe paralysis , but we need funds , says Tien . For now, the victims and Nghia , bedridden , they are lucky if they stay with their families , as many are abandoned in orphanages shortly after birth by parents who are unable to bear the burden . Nghia s mother , Hoang Thi The , 75 , has been dealing in exclusive twenty two children affected. Her other daughter , Ti Na Thi Tran , 31 , was slower to develop the disease and still speaks and walks with a walker , but often suffers violent panic attacks at the thought that his fate is the same as that of his brother. We took them to the best hospitals in Hanoi to see if they could heal , but they said it was impossible to remove the dioxin from the body , says the parent resigned . Her husband, a North Vietnamese Army veteran whose health was also damaged after the conflict, died ten years ago , so it was left alone Nghia care of their offspring . Ensures take twenty years without sleeping more than two hours because their children tend to wake anxious in middle of the night . At least I do not have to bear the animosity of their neighbors , that before knowing the origin of the disease to their children they attributed to bad karma and was treated as a plague-stricken . Says not grudge anyone 75 years and has no other purpose than to care for their children and make sure that someone does when she no longer can. In a few years my health worse and I know that I do not have much time to live . Before dying , I want to ensure that someone will take care of my children , he says . (Source Informer ) L R.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 06:45:34 +0000
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