The US organisation Clear Path International (CPI) announced on August 16 that it has received 524,000 USD from the Obama administration in non-refundable aid for victims of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Vietnam .

CPI Executive Director Kiman Lucas said the money will help the organisation expand its operation in Vietnamese localities and give necessary support to victims.

During the war, the US army dropped more bombs on Vietnam than those were deployed in the First and Second World Wars combined, according to CPI.

It is estimated that as many as 30 percent of the bombs remain unexploded, equivalent to 800,000 tonnes. UXO’s have killed and maimed thousands of innocent people and greatly hindered economic development.

Nearly 40 years since the war ended in Vietnam , new victims are still reported every day, with as many as 40 percent of them under the age of 16. In 2012 alone, about 500 people in Vietnam , Laos and Cambodia were injured by UXO’s dropped by the US during the war.

CPI is a non-profit organistion which delivers assistance, mine risk education and capacity building programmes to individuals and organisations living and working in conflict-affected communities throughout the world.

Operating in Vietnam since 2000, the organisation also runs programmes in Afghanistan , Cambodia , Laos , Tajikistan and along the Thai-Myanmar border.-VNA