During the war in Vietnam, the Americans sprayed over 21 million gallons of toxic chemicals, including 18.2 million gallons of agent-orange with dioxin onto 10% of the land area in Southern Vietnam which resulted in contaminating and destroying millions of hectares of forests and agricultural land. Many people believe that apart from the harmful effects on the environment, this chemical also caused serious effects on millions of Vietnamese people’s lives and health ; this effect may still be found in the generations of children born after the war. At present it is estimated that 4.8 million Vietnamese people were and still are affected by agent orange. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions of people and their offspring are suffering to this day from poverty and diseases as a continuing consequence of agent-orange. Among these victims, women and children are those who suffer the most.
Da Nang was once the sight of a very violent battlefield with military bases such as Chu Lai Army Base and Da Nang Air Base, the second largest air base in the south during the war. On this land, still contaminated with remaining dioxin chemical, terrible effects were and still are engendered on women, children and their loved ones.
Our research in Hoa Vang shows that women and children were those who suffered the most from dioxin : their bodies were filled with toxic poisons and were also the ones who had to earn the family livelihood, yet they took care of their children and relatives who were also victims of agent-orange. They provided medical and daily care for the victims. They still face hardship in finding work and earning enough income. They suffer from a lack of relevant knowledge needed for nursing agent-orange victims, and especially, they lack access to a social and supporting network for agent-orange victims.
The journey toward justice for agent-orange victims must be continued, yet there is another extremely important post-war task which is to support agent-orange victims and their relatives, especially women and children, to relieve the hardship on their lives.