Date Killed: June 26, 2002

CPI Assistance: Scholarships for Hoa's children; home improvement grant; assistance for income-generating activities.

CPI considers the family members of a person killed by landmines or UXO to be survivors. Quite often the person killed is the family's main breadwinner. Our program assists the family through their dificult time and if the person killed was a parent to young children, we assist the children with scholarship money.

Pham Phuc Hoa was a disabled person. Both his legs were paralyzed, so he used his hands to drag his body from one place to another. He was married to a kind, gentle woman and they had 4 children together. His first child was a son, who was 11 years old at the time of Hoa’s accident. His second child was a 10-year-old daughter and the last two were twin sisters, both 4 years old.

Despite his physical limitations, Hoa was well known in his commune, located in Quang Binh province, for his ability to fix simple mechanical parts. His wife did farm work to help support the family while he made himself available for small jobs the locals offered him in exchange for cash.

On the evening of June 25th, 2002, one man in the village, who drove taxis for a living, returned from work and stopped by Hoa’s house. He told Hoa that earlier that day he’d taken a drive on the road linking the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the western edge of the district, where there was a road construction project. The workers had just found a large bomb. Construction activities were immediately suspended since nobody dared to touch it. They were looking for someone to either disable or get rid of it.

Hoa didn’t sleep much that night. He had told the man to take him to the site the next morning. He’d seen other people defusing bombs before. It was a scary undertaking, but if he succeeded, he could earn a decent amount of money. He would use it to replace the old thatch roof on his house before the rainy season started. The rest of the money could be used to maybe build a pigsty and buy some piglets for his wife to raise. The truth was that he needed the money badly.

But what if things went wrong? He turned over in bed and looked at his children sleeping through the doorway in the next room over. They were all sleeping soundly. He looked at his wife lying next to him in bed. Her eyes were shut, but he knew that she wasn’t asleep. He had talked to her about going to the construction site before they’d come to bed. She had listened quietly to his reasoning but hadn’t offered any advice or suggestions.

Hoa left home at 8am the next morning. He sat behind the moto rider, his tool bag on his back, and his arms wrapped around the belly of the rider. That was the last image that Hoa’s wife would remember of her husband.

The same moto driver brought the news back to her that same day. Hoa didn’t make it. He had taken his time and paid extra attention to the bomb, but the extremely sensitive fuse had picked up enough outside vibrations to execute its designed function.

Nearly two years later, Hoa’s family was on a list of candidates for CPI’s “Home Improvement Grant.” Their house had a new roof by December 2004, but nothing in the house was worth more than $10-$15.

CPI granted the family a 3-year-old cow as a means to help them generate income. Hoa’s school-age children also received General Scholarships so they would be able to continue with their schooling despite the family’s extreme poverty.