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Survivor of Vietnam war still crying out for peace
The Huron Expositor • May 30, 2007 Page 13
Amy Z o e t h o u t
The name Kim Phuc may not be
well-known to many people, but the
photographic image of her as a
young Vietnamese girl severely
burned after a napalm attack on her
village became one of the most
remembered images of the Vietnam
War and of the 20th century.
Phuc visited Auburn Saturday
evening where she recounted her
long journey from that historical
moment and shared with the con-
gregation of the Huron Chapel the
lessons she has learned along the
way.
A large majority of those in the
audience raised their hands when
asked by Phuc if they recognized
the picture of her at age nine run-
ning naked down her village street
with severe burns on her back after
the attack.
"(This picture) helped change the
way people saw war and also
changed my life forever," she said.
Growing up in south Vietnam,
Phuc described a happy childhood.
Before war came to her village, she
had never known fear.
Then the event that changed
Phuc's life forever occurred when
four napalm bombs were dropped on
her village severely injuring many
of the villagers including members
of her family.
Nick Ut shot the photo of Phuc
running from the fire before putting
down his camera and rushing her to
the hospital.
"He saved my life," she said,
adding that she owes who she is
today to the lessons she learned
from that experience. "Terrible
things happen to people and if
you're very lucky, you can learn
from that experience. That experi-
ence can even make you stronger...I
learned to be strong even when it
hurt so badly."
The road to recovery was long for
Phuc. She spent 14 months in hospi-
tal after being burned and has
endured 17 operations over the last
35 years.
"I almost died many times, but
somehow I survived. Somewhere I
found the strength and was deter-
mined to live," she said.
Still to this day, Phuc suffers from
severe pain but has found ways to
help her get through those difficult
times, such as prayer and turning
her focus away from the pain.
"When I focused on the pain, it got
bigger and bigger and bigger."
One of the lessons Phuc learned
from her experience is the impor-
tance of love. With the love and
compassion of her doctors, nurses
and family, she was able to survive.
And with the scars of her wounds,
she thought she would never have a
boyfriend or marry and have chil-
i
Kim Phuc
dren. She is now married and lives
in Ajax, Ont. with her husband and
two children.
"Love is not always easy or gentle;
sometimes it is tough," she said,
remembering her excruciating
recovery and wanting to give up so
many times, but her mother kept
pushing her, even though the pain
was unbearable.
Another important lesson Phuc
carries with her is the importance of
education.
As a little girl, she said she loved
going to school. Being in the hospi-
tal for so long, she missed her class-
es and her friends, but worked hard
to catch up once she was able to go
back to school.
She dreamed of becoming a doctor
so she could help people as she was
helped. She was accepted to medical
school in Saigon.
But the Vietnamese government
started using the
picture of her as
a symbol of war
and exploited
Phuc by having
her speak in
interviews.
"They tried to
control me, but I
wanted to be left
alone. I wanted
to live a peaceful
life."
She was fortu-
nate to meet
with the
Vietnamese
prime minister
and begged him
to let her finish
her studies. He
arranged for her
to go to school in
Cuba.
She switched
her major from
.1
medicine to English and Spanish.
"I was determined to get an edu-
cation and I got it."
After six years in Cuba, she was
married to a fellow Vietnamese stu-
dent. They were given permission to
travel to Moscow for their honey-
moon. With little freedom under a
communist government, she had
heard rumours about possibly
defecting to Canada on the return
trip to Cuba.
When the plane landed in Gander
to refuel, she and her husband man-
aged to stay in Canada while their
luggage traveled back to,Cuba.
"I love Canada so much, I am so
proud to be Canadian," she said,
adding that freedom was another
important lesson she shared from
her experience. "You never know
how blessed you are here. Please
don't take it for granted."
While still living in Vietnam, she
was introduced to Christianity
through a friend. Through the
power of prayer, and she said she
had to pray and pray a lot, she
learned to be positive and started to
count all of her blessings.
"I realized the
value in my suf-
fering and how it
could help me
reach out and
help others," she
said. "Having
known war, I
know the value
of peace; having
know govern-
ment control, I
know the value
of freedom; hav-
ing known pain,
I know the power
of healing and
the power of love;
having known
poverty, I learned how to value what
I have; having lived with hatred,
terror and corruption, I know the
power of forgiveness."
The final lesson she shared with
the group was that she learned to
take control of that famous picture.
It had controlled her life for so
many years and she realized that if
she could not escape that picture,
she would work with it for peace.
She has developed the Kim
Foundation that helps victims of
war.
The foundation focuses on helping
to heal the wounds suffered by inno-
cent children and to restore hope
and happiness to their lives, by pro-
viding much-needed medical and
psychological assistance.
"I accepted it as a powerful gift
that was part of God's plan for my
life," she said. "I am working with
my picture for good and it is my
choice."
"When you see that little girl,
don't see her as crying our of pain
and fear, see her as crying out for
peace."
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