VietNamNet Bridge -  This photograph of 9-year-old Nguyen Thi Ly, an Agent Orange victim in Vietnam, won UNICEF’s “Photo of the Year” contest this year. Photo courtesy of Ed Kashi.

Photograph of Vietnamese girl deformed by dioxin exposure wins photo competition

“I want to be just like my friends who don’t feel any pain while breathing,” says third-grader Nguyen Thi Ly from the central city of Da Nang.

The nine-year-old has a congenital deformity in her chest bones that press against her heart and lungs making breathing painful and difficult. Ly’s face is also disfigured, a common feature among those born into families exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

Between 1961 and 1971, the US Army sprayed some 80 million liters of Agent Orange over 30,000 square miles of southern Vietnam. The deadly chemical is named after the orange stripes on the barrels in which the defoliant was stored by the army.

By the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, nearly 4.8 million Vietnamese people had been exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths.

Ly is the third generation in her family dealing with the deadly effects of the defoliant. Her grandfather Le Duy Tinh, a Vietnamese soldier who served in Quang Tri Province, the forefront of many battles during the war, was exposed first to the toxin.

Ly lives with her parents and brother in Da Nang City’s Ngu Hanh Son District.

People around the country have become familiar with the tragic family story since American photographer Ed Kashi’s photo of Ly won the UNICEF “Photo of the Year 2010” contest.

Ly’s parents were delighted on being told by this Thanh Nien reporter on a recent visit to her house that her photograph had won a global competition.

But their joy was short-lived as they retold the story of Ly’s life and daily struggles.

Ly’s mother, Le Thi Thu, said her father was exposed to the dioxin at the Quang Tri battlefield during the Vietnam War.

“My brother and I suffered congenital deformities because of our father’s exposure. My brother died a few years after being born. I have lived with both pain and shame throughout my life,” she said.

Thu said she was lucky her husband Duong was willing to marry her despite her physical flaws.

Unfortunately, she gave premature birth to Ly, who also suffered similar deformities. At birth, Ly weighed only 1.7 kilograms; it was a miracle that she survived, said Thu.

At five years, Ly couldn’t walk and had a very limited vocabulary. Luckily, Thu’s second child was a healthy son. The siblings study in the third grade at Pham Hong Thai Primary School in Hai Chau District.

The legacy of war

Kashi’s photo of Ly that won the UNICEF contest was named Vietnam: The legacy of War.

In his photo series, Kashi shows the daily life rituals of Ly’s and another family in Da Nang who receive help from the organization “Children of Vietnam.”

“I take on issues that stir my passions about the state of humanity and our world. I deeply believe in the power of still images to change people’s minds,” Kashi describes his work on the competition’s website.

Kashi especially cares for the little ‘war veterans’. His photos show that war causes endless suffering – not just for one generation, UNICEF said in a statement.

“The UNICEF photo contest urges us to look at the fate of children around the world,” said UNICEF patroness Bettina Wulff at the award ceremony on December 17 in Berlin.

“The Photo of the Year 2010 is an appeal not to forget children’s suffering. It is an impressive reminder of the terrible effects that wars have on children even years after they have ended,” she said.

According to official estimates, there are 1.2 million disabled children in Vietnam. Several efforts have been made to decontaminate dioxin hot-spots but no one can be sure when the effects of Agent Orange will cease for millions of Vietnamese families that have been exposed over the years.

Source: Thanh Nien