NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Kim Phuc is known
around the world for a photograph taken of her as a child, naked and crying as
she ran down a road in South Vietnam, burned by napalm dropped by the United
States air force, clouds of dark smoke rising behind her.

Now 52, Phuc is working with a new charity called
Restoring Heroes to help provide medical treatment to members and veterans of
those same US military forces.

The twist of fate is far from lost on Phuc after decades
of pain from burns suffered from napalm dropped on a pagoda where she and her
family were hiding during the Vietnam War in 1972.

Restoring Heroes is targeting first responders and members
of the military who have suffered traumatic burns and scarring, such as wounds
caused by improvised explosive devices. The importance of forgiveness is Phuc’s
contribution to healing them.

“Everyone needs help,” Phuc told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation in an interview when Restoring Heroes was launched this
month.

While the napalm left burns on 65 percent of Phuc’s body,
she said her recovery was emotional and spiritual as well as physical, as she
learned how to forgive.

“Living with hate and bitterness almost killed me
many times,” she said. “When I learned to forgive all those who
caused my suffering, that was like heaven on earth for me.”

She found forgiveness when she found Christianity, she
said.

“Before, I would ask, ‘Why me? Why did I have to
suffer?'” she said. “I was a little child, innocent. I didn’t do
anything wrong.”

HELPED
BY HER FAITH

Her religious faith has helped her to count her blessings
and use her experience to help others, she said.

Phuc moved to Cuba from Vietnam, and now lives near
Toronto, Canada. She and her husband, a social worker, have two sons.

She created her own charity, www.kimfoundation.com, to
help children who are victims of war, and also served as a UNESCO Goodwill
Ambassador.

“I can help people living with hatred and
bitterness,” she said.

Phuc said there was a time when she could not bear to look
at the famous picture a war photorapher took of her at age 9, an image that
became a poignant icon for the conflict’s suffering and ravaged victims.

Now, she said, looking at the picture makes her feel
thankful.

“I realized that picture is a powerful gift for me to
work for peace, to help people,” she said. “That picture makes
awareness to everyone to stop the war, to stop fighting.”

Restoring Heroes is focusing on a form of laser therapy
that Phuc has undergone to help with scarring, pain and range of motion on her
shoulder where napalm clung to her skin and ignited.

The laser treatment promotes elasticity of the skin and
the growth of collagen that acts as a cushion when amputees are being fitted
with prosthetics, said Carol Novak, founder of Restoring Heroes.

Working for now in Miami, the charity aims to help 10,000
victims in the next three years, Novak said.