Chairman of the Board: Johannes Schoeche
Executive Director: Peter Stobinski
Address: Solidaritaetsdienst-internaltional e.V. (SODI)
Grevesmuehlener Str. 16, D-13059 Berlin
Tel: 0049-30-9286047; Fax: 0049-30-9286003
Email: info@sodi.de
Vietnam Representative: Karl Heinz Werther
Tel: 053-855-071; Fax: 053-855-068
Email: sodi@dng.vnn.vn
INTEGRATED CLEARANCE/DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
Solidarity service-international (SODI) is an NGO with activities in the field of development cooperation. SODI combines self help projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America and in Eastern/South Eastern European countries with information and educational work on the causes of poverty, violence and environmental destruction. In Vietnam, SODI currently runs an integrated demining/resettlement program in Quang Tri province and projects that provide clean drinking water to ethnic minority villages in mountainous areas of Nghe An province.
The integrated program of Demining and Resettlement in Quang Tri takes place in the districts of Cam Lo and Trieu Phong and started in 1998 with the clearing of land for resettlement. This program is based upon an agreement between SODI and the Provincial People's Committee (PPC) of Quang Tri. SODI's project implementing partners are the PPC and the Vietnamese Women's Union.
Commissioned by SODI, specialists from the German company GERBERA supervise the demining/UXO clearance and the training of Vietnamese deminers. The Vietnamese clearance team is employed by the PPC which provides the team members for the project. From 1998 to October 2002 nearly 400 hectares of land have been cleared by the demining team.
In April 2002 a mobile team engaged in survey and community awareness building began operations. The team operates in close partnership with the Vietnamese Women's Union, school boards and communes of Cam Lo district. The resettlement projects supported by SODI embrace the complete re-construction of villages which were destroyed during the war. These resettlement initiatives also include income generating components such as pepper and gum tree planting and the raising of livestock. The projects are implemented by project committees which include representatives of the Vietnamese Women's Association and the People's Committees of the districts as well as representatives of the communes/villages concerned.
Between 1999-2001, another SODI sponsored project in the village of Phuong Coi in Cam Lo District Quang Tri was re-built to include homes for fifty-four families, a primary school, a kindergarten, and a community house as well as being supplied with electrical and water supply systems. In 2001/2002 the village of Tan Dinh in Trieu Phong District Quang Tri started its second life. One hundred families have been resettled on this landmine/UXO free land. They have been supplied with a new primary school, water and electricity systems. With the construction of a kindergarten in 2003 the Tan Dinh project which is co-financed by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development will be completed. It is intended that SODI will continue its Integrated De-mining and Resettlement programs in Vietnam.
For further information, please contact sodi@dng.vnn.vn.
