PeaceTrees gives shelter to Vietnamese land-mine victims

DONG HA CITY, Vietnam — Phuong Nguyen was planting a tree at his Vietnamese school in 1985 when he dug into a land mine. It exploded, killing four students, and Nguyen, then 15, lost an eye and his left leg.

But for nearly 10 years now, Nguyen has been able to live an independent life, thanks in part to an unlikely benefactor — a Bainbridge Island woman who lost her brother to the Vietnam War.

Seattle restaurateur and culinary consultant Jerilyn Brusseau founded a nonprofit effort called PeaceTrees with her now deceased husband in 1995. The organization is committed to removing land mines in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam, one of the most severely devastated areas in the war, and replanting the barren countryside with trees.

More recently, PeaceTrees expanded its mission to build schools, libraries and, about ten years ago, PeaceTrees Village, where Nguyen and his family live.

The village is made up of 100 small homes built on a former U.S. combat base in Dong Ha City. It was built for land-mine victims and others who need help to live. About 30 percent of the 800 residents were injured by land mines. After living in a house for 10 years, each resident becomes the owner. The first homes were finished in the early 2000s.

Nguyen works in the village market as a bicycle repairman. In his small stucco-covered brick house, he keeps mementos — dozens of medals he won in the shot put and javelin before he was maimed, a constant reminder of how the war in Vietnam still has its casualties.

This land, once a fiery battleground, has been safely cleared of 289 pieces of unexploded ordnance.

Another village resident, Cuc Nguyen, 51, lost both legs 26 years ago when an unexploded land mine blew up in her backyard. She supports herself by making incense.

She said she was doing yard work and didn't see the bomb. She woke up three days later in the hospital.

"Sometimes I look at my life, and I'm not very fortunate. But I look at my children and I feel better," said Nguyen, who has a grown daughter and son.

She said she's not angry at the accident that took her legs. "It happened a long time ago," she said. "My children are the best."

Brusseau started her Land Mine Education Center 15 years ago, in memory of her brother, Daniel Cheney, a helicopter pilot who was killed in 1969, just 19 days after he arrived in Vietnam. He died saving the life of another pilot.

"When I learned of my only brother's death, it was an incomprehensible loss," Brusseau said. "The grief was heartbreaking."

She learned that the U.S. had restored diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1995 as she was flying home from a trip with her husband, Daanan Parry. "I got this shiver in my spine," she said. "We both realized it was the time to go to Vietnam."

Her husband died just as PeaceTrees was being launched.

Though the war ended decades ago, the land mines continue to explode. In 2009 there were 14 accidents, said Quang Ledinh, the country director of PeaceTrees. Last year there were seven. Every Thursday night, PeaceTrees takes found explosives into the mountains or the sea and detonates them.

Since 1975, more than 38,000 people in Vietnam have died from accidental explosions and many more have been hurt, many in Quang Tri province, the northernmost province in the former South Vietnam, bordering the Demilitarized Zone that separated North and South Vietnam.

By the end of 2009, the PeaceTrees disposal teams had located and destroyed 59,353 pieces of unexploded land mines — some the size of baseballs and others weighing 500 pounds or more — and cleared more than 500 acres of contaminated land. On the cleared land, it has planted more than 41,000 indigenous trees, often using volunteers from U.S. universities and high schools.

When she first visited Vietnam and Quang Tri Province, Brusseau said she met a 6-year-old boy who had lost his left hand and left eye in an explosion that killed his 3-year-old brother.

"That day in 1996, children were still dying. I knew we were in the right place," Brusseau said.

The first tree was planted that November. She goes back to Vietnam once or twice a year.

PeaceTrees raises about $600,000 to $700,000 a year, which pays for two demining teams, the mine-risk education project, survivors assistance and an office staff. The money comes from fundraising and donations, many from Western Washington, and grants.

Next year, PeaceTrees Village will celebrate its 10th anniversary and the organization is already planning several more projects:

• Donors are considering sponsoring the construction of two kindergartens in the hill country in western Quang Tri Province.

• A grant from the U.S. State Department for the explosive-disposal teams has been renewed, so the nonprofit can continue removing unexploded land mines.

• In March, PeaceTrees started a new project called Healthful Gardens for Healthy Children, which teaches women how to grow nutritionally balanced food to help address malnutrition. It was funded by a $14,000 grant from the Washington Women's Foundation.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com