PEACEBOMB

THE STORY

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, more than 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 supports: artisan families, the

community development fund, and clearance of unexploded ordnance from Lao land.

NOW. BUY BACK THE BOMBS.

Metalsmith with spoons

1975, Laos. A visitor from neighboring Houaphan Province teaches the first Naphia villager to cast spoons from aluminum bomb and other Secret War scrap metal littered throughout the countryside.

Cluster bombs cased in aluminum

The most heavily bombed country per capita, between 1964 and 1973, the US dropped 2 million tons of ordnance on Lao PDR, averaging one B-52 bomb load every 8 minutes, 24/7, for 9 years.

Wood and ash molds in front of an earthen kiln

Today, villagers continue to take a constructive approach to the destruction of war by recovering their livelihoods through available local resources, creating molds from wood and ash, kilns from the earth, spoons and now bracelets from aluminum war scrap metal.

Two metalsmiths that engineered the challenging bracelet molds

ARTICLE 22 works with the Rural Income through Sustainable Energy (RISE) Project of Swiss NGO, Helvetas, and artisans in three rural villages to develop design-forward products like the peaceBOMB bracelet. The approach is to cultivate sustainable economic development, protect culture by capacity-building upon pre-existing skills and use local resources.

War machinery

Repurposed metal includes the stabilization fins of cluster bomb casings, flares, certain fuses and parts of fighter jets. Local demand for this metal has existed since the 1970s, creating the strongly-entrenched scrap metal supply chain that exists today.

Rocket mortar among other debris

The implicit dangers in the process of scrap metal collection have led the RISE Project and ARTICLE 22 to research the supply chain from production back to collection. We are working to make it safer by collaborating with expert organizations pursuing professional UXO extraction and providing risk education to scrap collectors and safety techniques to artisans.

Expert clearance of unexploded ordnance (UXO) from farmland

One of the poorest countries in SE Asia, 80% of the population relies on subsistence agriculture. Bringing another meaning to farm to table, families eat most of what they harvest, leaving little left to sell.

Children of metalsmiths with scrap aluminum; baby wearing a small ring the parents made into a bracelet

With meager disposable income, handcrafts play a vital role in the livelihoods of rural and urban families.

The first villager to learn how to repurpose bomb metal in 1975 and his son who has continued the trade

The objective of the peaceBOMB Project is to help support income generating activities and the creation of sustainable businesses so that the next generation can build upon the foundation set by their parents.

The Rural Income through Sustainable Energy Project has helped the community implement sustainable energy

Benefits from the sale of peaceBOMB bracelets are shared across the community through donations to a village micro-credit fund that provides small business and other loans to members as well as supports community infrastructure projects.

Another remnant of war, villager unknowingly wears US ARMY jacket

Money from a second fund will be allocated for other village needs such as education. We are currently assessing village needs to ensure funds have as positive and lasting an impact as possible.