Suffering in Silence

With over three decades years after the war in Vietnam, a battle is still being fought to help people suffering from the effects of Agent Orange. Many of the families living in the remote villages have little access to medical care and don't even understand the medical term for the disability that their children have had since birth. They only know that the herbicide used by the US military during the Vietnam war called Agent orange caused this and the government gives monthly support of about $8 dollars per handicapped individual . Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S military sprayed nearly 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides across Vietnam in an attempt to kill vegetation that hid the enemy. Much of it contained the toxic nerve gas called dioxin. After so many years has past, studies have stated that lingering health and environmental problems effected an estimated 3 million Vietnamese, including 150,000 children. As a result an increased number of Vietnamese children have been born with severe birth defects and Down syndrome since the war ended in 1975.