Agent Orange: Foundation Mends Vietnamese

Foundation mends Vietnamese hearts that may have been stricken by wartime use of Agent Orange

Pacific Palisades woman has raised more than $1.6 million selling crafts made by disabled Vietnamese artists to finance operations to treat illnesses believed to be linked to the spraying of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

Marichia Simcik Arese jokes with artisans Le Bao Thi, 23, left, and Nguyen Van Phap, 23, at the Wounded Heart gift shop in Hue. Arese sells the crafts items the artisans make. (Sean Connelley / Los Angeles Times)

April 9, 2011 - As she so often does, Marichia Simcik Arese will host one of her unusual crafts boutiques this weekend at her Pacific Palisades home.

And two days after that she will head for Vietnam to encourage the disabled young artists who create chic water bottle carriers, tote bags and eye-catching picture frames to keep producing their stylish goods from discarded plastic bottles, old bicycle tires and recycled aluminum cans.

Healing a wounded heart: Overview - Watch Video - View Photos - View Map

Since 1998, Arese's do-it-yourself Spiral Foundation has raised more than $1.6 million selling the handmade items to finance heart operations for Vietnamese suffering from congenital heart diseases and other genetic conditions believed to be tied to the spraying of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

The sales have paid for 380 heart surgeries so far at a medical clinic in Hue that has come to rely on the 57-year-old Pacific Palisades woman's boutiques and on individual gift bazaars staged by a network of her supporters. {continued}

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Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign