Vietnam720: Agent Orange in Vietnam and the story of Agent Orange effects on Vietnamese children covered by Julian Abram from his Julian Abram Photography Blog. Julian shares here how his 2 visits to work on the Vietnam War Agent Orange effects can be vastly different since having his newborn. He titled it ‘Reflections of a new father visiting an Agent Orange orphanage‘.
Julian: Yesterday I went to an orphanage outside Hanoi, to work on a story about Agent Orange. There’s a new report out from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, saying the chemical defoliant could be causing heart disease and Parkinson’s in US Vietnam veterans. Of course this means it would be having the same effect on Vietnamese suffering from AO exposure. The big problem over the years has been the inability to make an ironclad, scientific link between exposure to the chemical and various illnesses. Without that link, there’s no actual proof, and therefore very limited funding from the US for Agent Orange medical programs in Vietnam (let alone in the US for its own veterans). I think anyone who’s been involved in any capacity with Vietnamese and Americans suffering supposed effects of AO will attest that even though there is a missing scientific link, the effects are all too real.
I’ve covered the aftermath of Agent Orange before, visited family homes in the countryside in the A Luoi Valley, which was heavily contaminated during the war, and made multiple visits with the children at Tu Do Hospital in Saigon. On my first visit to the hospital in 2004, I went with my good friend and colleague Sam Taylor, then a correspondent with Deutsche Presse Agentur. While spending time with the children, most of whom surfer from sever physical and mental disabilities, I noticed Sam had left the room. I walked outside and found him fighting back tears. He said the recent birth of his first son was making this visit all the more emotional. I felt extreme sympathy for the children in this hospital ward, but could not empathize with Sam’s heart-wrenching emotion.
On yesterday’s visit, I felt that empathy for the first time. My son is five months old. My partner and I give all that we can to ensure he is loved and cared for every minute of every day. The children I visited at the orphanage have next to nothing. They sleep on beds with no mattresses, only metal slats separating them from the floor. There is a stench of urine everywhere. The children vastly outnumber the nurses and volunteers at the center, and they get very little individual attention. Many are rarely touched, get to feel the hand of someone who cares -they will likely go their entire short lives without feeling the warm embrace of someone who loves them and cares for them every minute of every day.
When I got back from the orphanage I picked up my boy, held his face to mine, and closed my eyes.
Below are some images from my first trip to Tu Do Hospital with Sam in Saigon, 2004.
Finally, some links for more information about the lingering effects of Agent Orange:
http://www.vn-agentorange.org/
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/
http://www.vietnamfriendship.org/
