By Steve Mazzuchi | Photos by Ian Spanier
Ten years ago, Martha Hathaway had an experience she'll never forget. She was staying at a hotel in central Vietnam when she heard an explosion. Rushing to the source of the sound, she came upon two local boys who had accidentally detonated a grenade while playing with it in their yard.
"I saw it seconds after it happened," she recalls. "One boy wasn't terribly injured - he had shrapnel on his upper extremities. The other boy was on the ground, absolutely still. His mother ran out with a rice bowl, knelt down and used the bowl to scoop toward his stomach what had been blasted out of him. Then she got on a moped and rode off to the hospital. That was a pretty intense experience, and I was presented with two options: file it away, say 'that's too bad' and forget about it; or take it on." A serious fitness enthusiast - she works out six days a week and has competed in karate - Hathaway isn't one to dodge a challenge. And she has always been fascinated with Eastern lands. "When issues of National Geographic would arrive at our house, I'd flip right to the articles about India," says the now-Vermonter, who grew up in Chicago and Seattle. "When I was 18, I told my parents I wasn't going to college - I was traveling to Asia on my own."
She loved it, and after studying in India, earning a cultural anthropology degree from the University of Oregon and working with the Japan-America Society of the State of Washington, Hathaway joined Peace Trees Vietnam, an organization that clears bombs and land mines left over from past conflicts. "In Asia, you can't go too far without learning about the land mine issues that so many countries face," she explains.
Not surprisingly, after her graphic encounter in Vietnam, she chose to "take it on." And two years later she helped found Clear Path International (CPI), a nonprofit that goes beyond removing UXOs (unexploded ordnances) to directly aiding accident survivors, their families and their communities. Sound like an obscure problem? According to CPI, military forces have left behind so many UXOs in Southeast Asia that accidents occur every day. This leaves thousands of innocent people with missing limbs and other debilitating problems.
"Folks injured by land mines and bombs don't know what to do," Hathaway observes. "It became clear to us that victim assistance was where we could make the greatest impact."
Since its founding in 2000, CPI and its committed crew has provided services - including medical care, surgery, prosthetics, physical therapy, scholarships and household support grants - to more than 2,500 survivors in Vietnam. In Cambodia, they've taught vocational skills to more than 150 survivors and begun building a rice mill and agricultural center to boost the econ-omy while providing affordable food. And along the Thailand-Myanmar border, they've helped establish prosthetics shops and deliver prosthetics to amputees in remote jungle areas. Not bad for an organization that started in a guest bedroom. "We're not political or religious," Hathaway says. "We just recognize that there's an incredible injustice taking place, and there's something we can do about it."
As CPI's executive director, Hathaway leads these efforts. "I'm the only full-time employee in the U.S., so I wear a lot of hats," she notes. She works with the national offices in Southeast Asia and, recently, Afghanistan, on projects such as program evaluation, finances, quality control, employee reviews, compensation and future plans. This means handling phone calls and e-mails around the clock (thanks to disparate time zones) and visiting CPI's people - and those they help - in the field. "If we don't have consistent face time, the relationship starts to crumble," Hathaway says. "I was out of the U.S. for six months in 2007."
All that travel can be hard on the body - as well as make it difficult to keep that body in shape - so Hathaway makes fitness a priority. When she's home in southwestern Vermont, martial arts-style cardio, circuit weight-training and outdoor activities with her husband James (a CPI co-founder and board member) and sons Ryder and Colvin keep her 39-year-old figure toned. On the road, she follows the locals' lead. "Fitness is very important in Southeast Asia," she says. "The streets are full of people walking; jogging; playing tennis, soccer and badminton; and doing tai chi. That's good motivation to exercise."
Working out also helps Hathaway cope with the myriad difficulties of her job. "It's challenging working with so many different cultures and backgrounds," she admits. "Americans are so direct, but the Vietnamese are not. If you ask a question, you'll get a straight-faced lie in response. But to them it's not a lie, it's about saving face. To not do so would be unacceptable and rude. In Afghanistan, I experience hostility because I'm an American. And as a female, I'm sort of a third gender there."
Beyond cultural differences, there's chaos and tragedy. "You're working in a situation in which people are being blown up and killed," Hathaway says. "It's tough. After a while, you start to burn out. Exercise allows me to get rid of the hidden stress I carry around. It feels good, too."
What else keeps her going? People like the CPI staff, "who have dedicated their time, lives and passion to this issue," and the two boys in the grenade accident, whom she still visits in Vietnam. Hathaway tells of one young man, Ho Van Nghia, who lost an arm and two legs to a cluster bomb at age 13. Thanks to CPI's support, his life has improved.
"Every time I see him, he's a bit more confident and healthy and happy," she says. "He's a junior in high school now, and he's going to go to medical school." She also tells of a woman, Le Thi Hoai Phung, who lost a leg to a mine during her late teens. CPI helped her get a running prosthetic, and now she's winning races. "She's a fantastic athlete," Hathaway enthuses. "She's a local hero."
Hero, huh? Although Hathaway's far too modest to say so, Le Thi's not the only one.
BUSY BODY With family, work and travel all vying for her time, Hathaway squeezes in fitness and good nutrition whenever she can
>> FIGHT CLUB: Back home, Hathaway takes Kabox, a Tae Bo-style class, three times a week. "It incorporates martial arts, kickboxing and boxing into a high-impact cardio workout," she explains. "It's incredible and empowering."
>> CIRCUIT WORK: On her off days, Hathaway tackles a full-body circuit routine for 45 minutes to an hour. She lifts light weights for high reps, minimizes rest to up the cardio element, and uses balance balls to tighten her core. "It's not realistic for me to clock in more than an hour a day," she says. "I just try to get the most bang for my buck in the time I have."
>> ROAD WARRIOR: "When I'm travel-ing, who knows what I'm going to be faced with," Hathaway says. "In Afghanistan, I'm not even allowed to go out without a bulletproof vest and an AK-47." So she gets creative. She performs push-ups and sit-ups in her hotel room, swims and practices yoga. In Vietnam, she'll do tai chi with older women or martial arts with local kids.
>> FIT FOURSOME: "As a family, we go for walks, ride bikes and hike to rivers for fly fishing and swimming," Hathaway says. She also skis with her husband and sons in the winter.
>> PROTEIN PROPONENT: With diet, Hathaway has her priorities straight. "Protein keeps me going - I just crash and burn without it," she says. She totes along protein bars and cashews and tries to be sensible with other food. "My philosophy is to do what makes sense. I'm not big into deprivation."
>> LOCAL FAVORITES: On foreign soil, Hathaway takes advantage of healthy local fare. In Southeast Asia, that means fish, lean meats, tofu and veggies. And in Afghanistan, "a very common meal is a flat bread made with wheat flour, with red beans and multigrain rice stewed in a beef base," she explains. "It's awesome and incredibly healthy. I go for that as much as I can."
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