Nguyen Duc Huynh (L) visits Ho Van Lai, a victim of war-era unexploded ordnance in the central province of Quang Tri last month

A boy deformed by a war-era napalm bomb helps the less fortunate.

The 20-year-old student from Quang Tri Province simply smiled and stepped away without any hurt feelings.

He says he doesn’t feel sorry for himself, because he spends more time thinking of ways to help the other victims of unexploded ordnance, many of whom are far worse off than himself.

Huynh’s story first became famous when he was featured in Swedish journalist and filmmaker Fokle Ryden’s documentary “The Boy With No Face” in 2003. The film explored Huynh’s tragic fate as a young boy burned by leftover napalm 20 years after it was dropped on Vietnam.

Since the film was released, the filmmakers and other donors have sponsored 12 separate surgeries to help resurrect Huynh’s face, which was burned beyond recognition. He says all he wants to do now is help others.

‘Fire did not stop’

Huynh and his twin brother Nguyen Duc Hoa were only four years old when they walked a quiet street in the peaceful central province of Quang Tri’s Dong Ha Town on the most unlucky day of their lives in 1993.

The brothers’ walk to school was cut short by an explosion at a scrap metal yard that killed owner

Nguyen Duc Tuan and seriously injured Huynh. Hoa was luckier and suffered only minor injuries when the napalm shell dropped on the country by the US during the Vietnam War exploded nearly two decades after the guns had fallen silent.

“It was very hot and the fire did not stop,” Huynh told Thanh Nien Weekly. “I was only four then but the accident was too terrible to forget.”

“My father later told us that smoke was still rising from my body when I was taken to a medical center,” he added.

Napalm explosions are notorious for reaching burning temperatures of 1,200 degrees Celsius (or 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit). The accident badly burned the four-year-old child’s face and other parts of his body. Huynh says he can’t remember what his face once looked like.

Ryden first heard about the case in 1994 and aired a TV news report on Huynh in Sweden. The report impressed viewer Goran Anvinius, who later raised donations to help Huynh with surgeries.

Huynh’s face has been partially reconstructed by the operations, but many more procedures will be needed for the boy to look “normal.”

“It’s really scary to remember my 12 surgeries in Vietnam and in the US so far,” Huynh said. “But to be honest, my face is still full of scars.”

Some 40,000 Vietnamese have been killed by UXO since the war ended and countless others have been injured.

Living for others

However, Huynh said his biggest concern is not the difficulties he lives with, but how to improve the lives of many other victims of war-era unexploded ordnance (UXO) nationwide.

“Many people are in worse situations than mine but they have such a strong will,” he told Thanh Nien Weekly.

Huynh has paid several visits to UXO victims, including 19-yearold Ho Van Lai in Quang Tri. Lai lost his two legs, one arm and one eye when a war-ear bomb suddenly exploded, killing three of his cousins who were playing nearby.

The son of a poor welder, Huynh was unsure of what he could do to help others like him and Lai.

So he’s decided that getting the word out is the best contribution he can make. He launched a website (http://nannhanbommin.com or http://nannhanbommin.vicongdong.vn) telling the stories of other UXO victims earlier this week, and many victims are also using the “online club” as a way to relate with one another.

He said the web forum was a place for UXO victims to share their difficulties and spread awareness of the problem.

Huynh says he lives on VND10,000 a day in order to save money to pay for the domain and maintain the website.

Despite financial difficulties, the determined Huynh said he is looking forward to holding an exhibition of paintings by UXO victims, where their works could be sold to improve their lives.

Huynh is also studying finance and banking as a freshman at the Electric Power University in Hanoi.

He said his ambition is to run a business, or at least open a café, to offer jobs for UXO victims like himself.

Reported by Minh Hung