Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), established in 1980, now the Veterans for America
(VFA), is a Washington, D.C.
-based international humanitarian organization that addresses the consequences of war and conflict. The founder of VVAF is Bobby Muller
, a former U.S. Marine lieutenant
and Vietnam veteran
.
Veteran of America Foundation with the goal of transforming the American experience of the Vietnam War
into a mission of compassion and justice. VVAF's first major initiative was a journey back to Vietnam in 1981 to make peace with the country. In 1991, after a trip to the Killing Fields
of Cambodia, VVAF co-founded and coordinated the global campaign to ban landmines, called Campaign for A Landmine Free World, which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize
for its efforts to persuade countries to sign a treaty eradicating the use of antipersonnel landmines. In 1992, VVAF opened a clinic on the outskirts of Phnom Penh
to offer rehabilitative services to landmine victims.
, Cambodia
, El Salvador
, Kosovo
, Sierra Leone
and Vietnam
.
Since early 1998, a number of top musical artists have contributed to the cause through VVAF's Artists for a Landmine Free World. Some of the program's most active members include Emmylou Harris
, Sheryl Crow
, Steve Earle
, Nanci Griffith
, Willie Nelson
, Lucinda Williams
, Bruce Cockburn
, Bruce Springsteen
, and Mary Chapin Carpenter
.
VVAF was a cofounder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
(ICBL), which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize
jointly with coordinator Jody Williams of the VVAF. Loung Ung
serves as National Spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.
s and earthquakes devastated much of Southeast Asia and Pakistan
. iMMAP's information management support helped guide and maximize relief efforts by assisting in surveying hazardous and safe routes for transportation, supplies and locations for shelter. In January 2006, an iMMAP survey of Iraqi communities found that one in five areas in northern and southern Iraq were endangered by landmines and other unexploded ordnance.
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Veterans For America
Veterans for America is an advocacy and humanitarian organization that works to ensure that America meets the needs of servicemembers and veterans who have served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom . VFA focuses specifically on the signature wounds these conflicts:...
(VFA), is a Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
-based international humanitarian organization that addresses the consequences of war and conflict. The founder of VVAF is Bobby Muller
Bobby Muller
Robert O. "Bobby" Muller is an American peace advocate.He was born on Long Island, and grew up in Great Neck, New York and attended Hofstra University. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1967, during the Vietnam War...
, a former U.S. Marine lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
and Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
.
Background
In 1980, co-founders Bobby Muller and John Terzano created VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
Veteran of America Foundation with the goal of transforming the American experience of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
into a mission of compassion and justice. VVAF's first major initiative was a journey back to Vietnam in 1981 to make peace with the country. In 1991, after a trip to the Killing Fields
The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields are a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Cambodian Civil War ....
of Cambodia, VVAF co-founded and coordinated the global campaign to ban landmines, called Campaign for A Landmine Free World, which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
for its efforts to persuade countries to sign a treaty eradicating the use of antipersonnel landmines. In 1992, VVAF opened a clinic on the outskirts of Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
to offer rehabilitative services to landmine victims.
Projects
One of VVAF's primary causes is Campaign for a Landmine Free World, which works to increase awareness of the world's landmine crisis. As of 2002, VVAF operated programs in AngolaAngola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
Since early 1998, a number of top musical artists have contributed to the cause through VVAF's Artists for a Landmine Free World. Some of the program's most active members include Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
, Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
, Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith
Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
, Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, and Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter is an American folk and country music artist. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer...
.
VVAF was a cofounder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of non-governmental organizations working for a world free of anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions, where mine and cluster munitions survivors see their rights respected and can lead fulfilling lives.The coalition was formed in...
(ICBL), which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
jointly with coordinator Jody Williams of the VVAF. Loung Ung
Loung Ung
Loung Ung is a Cambodian American human-rights activist, an internationally-recognized lecturer, and the national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World...
serves as National Spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.
Post-Conflict Rehabilitation
Many survivors of war require physical and emotional rehabilitation. VVAF's Post-Conflict Rehabilitation Program (PCR) provides support through product services, physical and emotional training, and sport rehabilitation. It has provided rehabilitation services in Angola, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and supports rehabilitation and disability programs throughout Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of people who suffer from disabilities caused by war or debilitating diseases such as polio and clubfoot benefit every year from artificial limbs, braces and wheelchairs produced at VVAF clinics. In addition, patients are enrolled in physical therapy sessions where they develop the strength, flexibility and skills to become mobile again. VVAF’s community follow-up and outreach teams bring assistance to people where they live. And through the creation of self-help groups and the implementation of sports and recreation activities through our Sports for Life initiative, people develop the confidence, skills, and social networks necessary to become active participants in their societies.Sports for Life
Sports for Life (SFL), a project of PCR, uses athletic activity and play as vehicles for bringing about positive changes in the lives of people with disabilities. The SFL program uses therapeutic and competitive sports to rehabilitate disabled persons in war-affected nations, helping them to build physical and social skills and develop the confidence to improve their lives in other ways. SFL has conducted successful programs in Kosovo, Angola and Cambodia. In March 2006 two athletic superstars, 2000 NFL MVP Ray Lewis and Paralympian Cheri Blauwet joined the Sports for Life Advisory Committee and traveled to Africa with VVAF to support and promote new developments in Ethiopia and Angola.hi.nInformation Management and Mine Action Programs
VVAF's Information Management and Mine Action Programs (iMMAP) works in post-conflict countries, including Iraq, Vietnam and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to evaluate the impact of landmines and provide technical assistance to coordinate information necessary for relief and development. IMMAP started from the basic premise that implementing organizations, national authorities and donor governments needed to be able to define the global landmine problem's physical, social and economic dimensions as a prerequisite for effective planning, resource allocation and advocacy. Its efforts resulted in broad international acceptance of landmine survey standards and socio-economic measures of landmine/UXO impact. In the winter of 2005 and beginning of 2006, tsunamiTsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
s and earthquakes devastated much of Southeast Asia and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. iMMAP's information management support helped guide and maximize relief efforts by assisting in surveying hazardous and safe routes for transportation, supplies and locations for shelter. In January 2006, an iMMAP survey of Iraqi communities found that one in five areas in northern and southern Iraq were endangered by landmines and other unexploded ordnance.
Nuclear threat reduction
VVAF’s Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign (NTRC) educates and mobilizes key constituencies to advance US public policy on a bipartisan basis that reduces the threats posed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. In late 2005, NTRC was largely responsible for the rejection of a government bill that would have allowed the use of robust nuclear earth penetrator (RNEP) bombs, commonly known as "bunker busterBunker buster
A bunker buster is a bomb designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground.-Germany:Röchling shells were bunker-busting artillery shells, developed by German engineer August Cönders, based on the theory of increasing sectional density to improve penetration.They were tested...
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