Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation

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Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) was co-founded in 1980 by Bobby Muller and John F. Terzano, who "came together with a goal to transform the American experience of the Vietnam War into a mission of compassion and justice," which "became the heart of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, an international humanitarian organization that addresses the causes, conduct and consequences of war through programs of advocacy and service for victims of conflict," its website states.

A major supporter of their work has been the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation.

They are a USAID "Implementing Partner" in Angola. [1] In 2006, "The Boeing Company and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) participated this week in the groundbreaking to begin construction to effectively double the capacity of a primary school in Hoi Ninh. Boeing provided key funding to begin the construction, and the project fund is managed and the school construction supervised by VVAF." [2] In 2006, VVAF obtained a $450,000 grant from the Ford Foundation for their work in Vietnam. [3]

About

The "first major" VVAF "initiative was an unprecedented journey back to Vietnam in 1981 to make peace with America’s former enemy. Because of that life-altering experience, VVAF began to lead reconciliation efforts that would ultimately result in lifting the U.S. trade embargo and normalizing relations with Vietnam. It is because of this advocacy that VVAF began a unique friendship with the Vietnamese that endures today," VVAF states on its website.

"Nearly a decade later, a 1991 trip to the horrific 'killing fields' of Cambodia inspired VVAF to co-found and coordinate the phenomenal global campaign to ban landmines, called Campaign for A Landmine Free World, which was awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to galvanize nearly a third of the world’s countries to sign a treaty eradicating the use of antipersonnel landmines. Further, because of the trip to Cambodia, VVAF became one of the first humanitarian organizations in the world to offer rehabilitative services to landmine victims when we opened our flagship clinic on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in 1992."

Board of Directors

Staff

See VVAF Staff bios.

Contact Information

Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF)
1025 Vermont Ave NW
Seventh Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202 483-9222
FAX: 202 483-9312
Email links
Website: http://www.vvaf.org/

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

References

  1. Angola, USAID, accessed October 22, 2008.
  2. Boeing and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation Join to Expand Hoi Ninh School, Boeing, accessed October 22, 2008.
  3. Vietnam and Thailand, Ford Foundation, accessed October 22, 2008.
  4. About CJA, CJA, accessed July 19, 2007.