PROJECT PEACEBOMB
PROJECT PEACEBOMB combines human ingenuity and aluminum non-war and war scrap metal to create bracelets that tell a story about their makers and the legacies of our shared history: the Secret War, 1964-1973, during the Vietnam conflict which left Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.
IT IS ABOUT COLLABORATION.
ISSUES + LEADERS
IT IS ABOUT PAST PRESENT FUTURE.
A bracelet.
A story about war and peace. Destruction and reconstruction. History. Instead of words, this story is composed of fragments of bombs, melted and shaped into a circle, a bracelet, a reminder.
1973.
Laos. A major theatre of war during the Vietnam conflict, the US has ceased its 9-year long aerial bombardment known as the Secret War intended to halt the spread of communism across Indochina. Communist Lao leaders and 23,000 civilians slowly emerge from homes carved in the karst cave complexes of Houaphan Province.
1975.
War is over. Saigon has fallen to the North Vietnamese Army. Victory within near reach, the Pathet Lao advance westward. A lone man from Houaphan also moves west. He journeys through the emerald-mountain passes toward the bomb-cratered Plain des Jars.
Naphia Village, Laos.
The man makes a temporary home. He collects scrap metal from farmland and forest scarred by war debris from the 250-260 million bombs that were dropped. He crafts spoons from aluminum melted in an earthen kiln and cast in hand-sculpted molds of wood and ash.
Villagers watch, listen, learn.
The first Naphia resident learns the trade from the lone traveler. He crafts and sells spoons. Eventually, he teaches the technique to his son. Today, 10 resourceful and enterprising families supplement subsistence farming activities with income from repurposing scrap metal. Through resourcefulness and problem solving, they take a constructive approach to a legacy of destruction.
2009.
peaceBOMB bracelets. Developed through the collaboration of spoon makers, the RISE Project, and ARTICLE 22, a social enterprise that supports sustainable development through design thinking. Each bracelet purchase brings: helps support artisan families, the community development fund, and clearance of unexploded ordnance from Lao land.
NOW.
BUY BACK THE BOMBS.
STORY
LEGACIES OF WAR is a Washington, DC-based non-profit that works to increase US government funding for the clearance of UXO, in Laos. In 2009, LOW pushed for and received Congressional support to increase US. assistance in 2010 to $5 million for cluster bomb clearance in Laos – the largest annual amount the U.S. has ever provided.
SIGN THE PETITION to increase funding for cluster bomb removal in Laos and assist victims and affected families.
CLUSTER MUNITIONS COALITION is an international effort to ban the use of cluster munitions: small explosive devices released from cluster bombs and have a very high failure rate.
30% of the bombs dropped did not detonate
At the current rate of removal, it will take an estimated 800 years to clear the unexploded ordnance or UXO
The majority of UXO in Laos are cluster bombs
The US, China, Brazil, and other global leaders have not signed the treaty to ban the production, use, and stockpiling of cluster munitions
The size of a fist or soup can, they often remain buried in the ground undetonated, killing more civilians than enemy soldiers and preventing war torn countries from redeveloping UXO littered land.
To find out which countries have signed, ratified and acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, check out the CMC TREATY STATUS page.
Source: NRA Lao (2011)
VILLAGE + NON-PROFIT + SOCIAL BUSINESS + YOU
TRADEMARK TM ARTICLE 22 + PROJECT PEACEBOMB
