The neat little compound is composed of familiar-looking ochre coloured low rise buildings that surround a central courtyard which includes a brightly painted set of climbing frames and slides.

This is Hoa Binh peace village, a specialist school and medical centre providing relief to the child victims of Agent Orange, Dioxin poisoning and other mental and physical disabilities. The children suffer from a whole range of symptoms, including mental under-development, or stunted or deformed limbs and spines.  Most arrive unable to walk, speak or read and some aren’t even able to respond to their own names.

Despite it’s modest appearance and rather basic infrastructure the real secret of the place doesn’t lie in its bricks and mortar, but in the people who work there. The most important aspect of the place is the loving care and attention the children receive from a small staff of doctors and teachers, aided by foreign volunteers and charitable donations.

Nguyen Minh Huong, aged 7, is one of the 107 children at the Peace Village. Huong is from Hanoi’s Quynh Mai Street  and came to the Village nearly one year ago. She said that she was very happy to be at the village. Huong shares a classroom with 20 other children, some mentally disabled, others with severe physical disabilities. It's a distressing sight, whatever the cause, and a poignant symbol of the unresolved Dioxin question.

According to Andre Bouny, Chairman of the International Committee in Support of the Vietnamese Agent Orange/Dioxin Victims US forces sprayed an estimated 84 million tonnes of herbicides, including Agent Orange, in Vietnam to deny food and jungle cover to Vietnamese liberation forces, but the chemical remained in the water and soil decades later.

Agent Orange, named after the colour of its containers, is blamed for nightmarish birth defects where babies appear with two heads or without eyes or arms. US veterans of the war have also complained for years of a variety of health problems from exposure to the herbicide.

Dioxin, the toxic compound in Agent Orange, has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects and organ dysfunction.

The high levels of Dioxin in Vietnam are related to a systematic herbicidal programme organized by the US military that ran from 1961 through to 1971. 

Spraying reached its maximum heights during the most intense period of the war, between 1967 and 1968, it’s use ending in 1971. By this point an estimated 19 million gallons of herbicide had been sprayed on Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, somewhat more than half (55%) of that Agent Orange, between 1962 and 1971. Early estimates from 1974 had placed the amounts lower, between 12 and 14 million US gallons (45,000 and 53,000 m³). In total about 6 million acres (24,000 km²) were sprayed in Vietnam alone.

It was later learned that a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), is produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of 2,4,5-T, and was thus present in any of the herbicides that used it. The United States National Toxicology Programme has classified TCDD to be a human carcinogen, frequently associated with soft-tissue sarcoma, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

2,4,5-T has since been banned for use in the US and many other countries.

Diseases associated with dioxin exposure are Chloracne, soft tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A link has also been found to diabetes.

The problem is that the dioxin did not disperse as expected, and is still contaminating villagers nearly 30 years after the war ended.

A 2002 study of University of Colombia of New York reveals that 80 grams of dioxin poured in a town’s water supply would kill 8,000,000 inhabitants. On that base, 40 billions times the lethal potential for one human being would have been sprayed over Vietnam.

Scientists use a unit of measure called TEQ – Toxic Equivalent Quantity – to determine a toxicity limit for food consumption. In France for instance the accepted dose is from 1 to 4 picogrammes per day per kilo of body weight. In the US the accepted dose is more drastic, it is 0,0064 picogramme, that is to say 160 times less than the lowest French standard. In Vietnam that dose can reach 900 picogrammes per kilo of body weight per day for one person.

An estimated 3 to 4 million people in Vietnam are directly affected by Agent Orange -and those numbers do not include the other people who feel the impact, such as parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters.

Doctor Nguyen Thi Ha.

The Peace Village attempts to deal with the after-affects of  this horrific environmental and human catastrophe. We spoke to Doctor Nguyen Thi Ha, who said that the village provides care for residents who were born to war veterans exposed to Agent Orange. The village has four main functions, including giving care, treatment and vocational training to disabled children, mainly Agent Orange - affected children who parents or grand-parents had been affected by Agent Orange.

The village is also a place for students from universities such as the College of Labour and Social Affairs or the Teachers' Training College to engage in practical study or do social activities. At the moment, ten students from the College of Labour and Social Affairs are at the village to help the children and finalise their final study theses.

In addition, foreign students from Hong Kong and the Republic of Korea have come to the village. Currently two Australian volunteers who are a painter and a lawyer have come for two months, and teach English every afternoon.

With the financial assistance from Hanoi's Committee for Population, Family and Children and an American company, the village's health workers have been trained and some of the children receive vocational training in the morning.

The village has also received assistance from the Ms Masako, President of the Japanese Agent Orange Victim’s Association part of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Association.

The Japanese woman first came to village about four or five years ago and when she returned to Japan, she has recommended the Village to other Japanese and called for assistance Vietnam in general and the Village in particular. She now visits Vietnam twice a year and helps teach the village children to make gifts so that she can sell or call for donations to help the village. She has donated medical equipment to the village.

Mary, an American volunteer.

We also met Mary, an American volunteer whose previous job had been working at a nursing college in the United States. She had worked for the village two years ago and just returned for a second stint of voluntary work. She said that she had made a commitment to help at the Peace Village as she had had a cousin who had died in the American war and felt that it would have been something he would have approved of. Her voluntary work consists of teaching basic English and organising games that strengthen the children’s motor skills. She added: ‘even though they are mentally disabled, they still have the ability to learn, and even a few words of English really helps their confidence’

After graduating from Hanoi Teachers' Training College, Phuong, a staff member at the college began to work for the Village four years ago. Now, she teaches children at the Village. She said that though the work is not easy, her love and compassion for the children has kept her at the Village.

Thanks to the care of Village staff members like doctor Ha, teacher Phuong and others and with support and assistance from concerned agencies in Vietnam as well as foreign charity organisations and individuals, the residents of the Village have found hope despite their misfortune. However, there remains millions of people affected by the legacy of Agent Orange, and it will be a generation-spanning task to provide care and assistance for them.

By JC Smith and Ngoc Anh