BRATTLEBORO — Students for RENEW, a Brattleboro Union High School student group, has donated $1,000 it raised over several years to help improve the living conditions of a land mine victim in Äông Hà, the capital of Quang Tri province, Vietnam.
The student group is affiliated with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's Project RENEW, which is aimed at “restoring the environment and neutralizing the effects of war” by aiding in the removal of undetonated land mines.
The formal donation is to be announced at a press conference to launch the students' 2013 fundraising campaign, “Help Us Help Them.” There the students will screen a short film they created on the subject. Anyone donating more than $25 toward the campaign will be named in the credits.
The donation was first announced via an email sent out by group advisor and BUHS history teacher Bill Holiday, and on the daily BUHS televised broadcast.
Holiday said he first heard of Project RENEW and its initiatives in Vietnam on a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund-sponsored trip to the area in 2007, where he learned of the plight of Vietnamese landmine victims. Particularly moving, he said, was attending a dedication of a victim's new home, paid for by Project RENEW.
“While I was sitting in that room, I looked at a friend and said, 'We need to do something. We can't just come here and say this is very nice; we need to do something,'” Holiday said.
Project RENEW notes that, during the Vietnam War, Quang Tri province was divided by the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, and was the most heavily bombed and shelled area of Vietnam.
According to the province's wiki page, “Over three decades after the war ended, Quang Tri province is still affected by explosive remnants of war (ERW), which have killed and injured over 7,000 people (1.2 percent of its total population) since 1975.”
More recently, Students for RENEW has been working on increasing community awareness on the lasting effects of war on a country and its people.
So far, they have presented twice at Keene State College and once at a meeting of the Brattleboro Rotary Club.
Holiday said the Rotary Club presentation was so well received, club members voted to support Project RENEW.
He also said he hopes a major donor will step forward to fund a student trip to Vietnam for the students to present their donations to recipients personally, as the primary purpose of the student group is to educate, not simply raise funds.
“It's nice to be able to help monetarily, but I don't see us as an organization that's trying to grub money all the time,” he explained.
The students have been spreading the word through their website (www.studentsforrenew.blogspot.com), Facebook page, and Twitter feed, Holiday added.
Meyru Bhanti, a BUHS junior, said the group is planning more presentations to raise awareness.
“It's motivating. Although we [the current students in the group] did not raise [all of] this money, it feels good that $1,000 can have such a large impact on someone's life,” Bhanti said. “That is really the whole point of Students for RENEW: We want to help people and make an impact. So many people don't realize that the effects of war are felt for years after the fighting ends.”
Holiday said he agreed.
“It's rewarding to know that you're able to help, and I hope that people pay attention and realize there's an issue out there and get involved,” he said.