This letter was sent to us from the Mother of Phan Van Rot, a 14 year old boy who was injured in July of 2002.

From: Luu Thi Le
Quyet Thang Village- Thanh Trach Commune
Bo Trach District- Quang Binh Province- Viet Nam

To: CPI
Khe May Lake- Ward 3- Dong Ha Town
Quang Tri Province- Viet Nam

Thanh Trach, September 12, 2002.

To the Board of Directors and all Staff Members of CPI.

I am the mother of Phan Van Rot, the one who received tender care from your organization throughout the last period of misfortune. Now, despite of the fact that our son is a disabled child, he has been released from the hospital and reunited with the family. All thanks for the golden hearts of your organization who offered the kind, open arms that returned him to life.

I am his mother, but you are also his mother, the one who has given him a second birth. I can't describe in words how deeply we are moved; we just respectfully send our gratitude to the Board of Directors and all Staff Members of CPI for what you have recently done for our son in particular, as well as for the UXO related accident victims in general. We wish you good health and hope that there will be more and more individuals and organizations of goodwill supporting you in these humanitarian activities that help to mollify the sorrow of war for the Vietnamese people.

The war has passed, yet the sorrow remains. We are a poor peasant family in Thanh Trach commune. It was a concentrated target of the US Air Force due to the presence of the Gianh ferry, which forwarded many supplies to the battlefields in south Viet Nam. That was the reason why an uncountable tonnage of bombs was dropped on this miserable piece of land. Ours was one of the families that suffered most: 4 members out of a total of 5 in my family were killed. Our house was burned to ashes; the bodies were also burned to ashes. The lunar date was 10/12 in 1973, the most consternated day for our family and for the entire commune of Thanh Trach. The bombardment quickly shattered my family: the house was burnt down, and 4 people were killed. My entire family was almost eliminated on that damn day. Almost every house in the commune suffered a loss of from 1 to 2 of their relatives. My family was the one that suffered most.

It would be difficult for me to put into words the feelings I experienced in those days, especially since it was only 3 days later the ceasefire came into effect. My husband was a worker for the national defense who was at that time working in Laos. He was also in an accident that forced him to stay in the hospital for several months. He is now also not a normal person, suffering a serious mental disorder ever since. All the work in the family is on my shoulders: a wife and a mother. I thought I had reached the limit of my sorrow; unfortunately, the ordnance didn't spare my family yet.

If there hadn't been such a golden heart as yours, I wouldn't have known if my son would live, especially when the medical costs were much and our income so little. It's just "there's always a light in the total darkness". It was you who offered your helping hand just when we needed it most. You not only helped us to cover medical expenses but also arranged a wheelchair for our son so he can go back to school with his friends.

We are too moved to express enough our gratitude. You are heroes with golden hearts who always offer help to families like ours. We wish you good health so you can carry out more humanitarian works; so that victims like our son can have faith in life. We will also announce widely your good works so that there will be more and more individuals and organizations to contribute to your activities, to share a certain weight of budget with your organization.

Once again, we wish you health; and please accept this grateful thanks from the bottom of our hearts.

We are simple peasants; please forgive us for any negligence in this letter.

Thank you very much,
For the family

The victim's mother
Luu Thi Le