As parents die, Vietnamese worry who’ll care for Agent Orange disabled

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/22/197317/as-parents-die-vietnamese-worry.html



Tran Duc Nghia 39, watches as his mother talks about his condition at their home in Da Nang, Vietnam. 75-year-old Hoang Thi Te wishes the U.S. military would have made a weapon that would have killed her children right away, instead of leaving to suffer decades later.

As parents die, Vietnamese worry who’ll care for Agent Orange disabled
By Drew Brown | McClatchy Foreign Staff
Posted on Monday, July 22, 2013

~snip~

The dilemma he faces is one that concerns many people who work with Agent Orange victims in Vietnam. As parents and other caregivers die off, the fate of these people is often uncertain.

“We foresee this becoming a serious issue, which is why we need more foreign funding,” said Nguyen Thi Hien, the director of the Da Nang Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin.

Vietnam, where once-lush jungles in the Central Highlands remain denuded of vegetation because of Agent Orange, doesn’t have much of a social safety net. Families usually take care of their own elderly, sick and disabled. In a country where the average per capita income is just $1,300 a year, the families of Agent Orange victims are often the poorest members of society.

A Columbia University study in 2003 found that at least 3,181 villages, containing anywhere from 2.1 million to 4.8 million people, had been sprayed directly.