FRD’s Agent Orange Educational Project

The Fund for Reconciliation and Development, with encouragement and initial support from Oxfam America, is coordinating an educational project to raise awareness about the lingering consequences of the chemicals used during the Vietnam War, and to encourage support for alleviating their human health and environmental effects.

Currently, the multi-part project can make the following available for interested groups:

--five videos that range in tone from a call to action to a meditation on the resilience of the human spirit, and include a focus on rehabilitation work initiated by American veterans

--a list of potential speakers and their topics

--poster detailing the current legacy of dioxin in hot spots near bases, thanks to the groundbreaking Hatfield Group

--the extended stories of people thought to be affected by Agent Orange and small photo albums of those telling their stories

--artwork with an Agent Orange theme

Our new website will allow people to download these materials, find links to humanitarian responses, read news related to Agent Orange (including scientific studies, legal action, newspaper articles) and find links to related topics. We are also working on a curriculum packet and on developing a traveling art exhibit that will incorporate historical and scientific information and provide models for community engagement.

Our intent is to offer a strong, clear, multi-faceted statement that invites reflection and compassion, not defensiveness or  voyeurism, and provides ways for viewers to channel their responses into constructive action, rather than be left with a feeling of insurmountable hopelessness or guilt. Our goal is to create what Susan Sontag calls a meditative space, an opening to address a part of history that challenges our collective conscience.

If you know people whose work should be included in this project, please let us know how to contact them. If you would like to help bring the project to a venue near you, let us know and we can help. If you have suggestions for artwork, videos, books or other materials to include, or for possible funders, we welcome them. Please contact us Susan Hammond at shammond@ffrd.org.