[1/3] Vietnamese artist, Dang Ai Viet, paints a portrait of a woman as a part of her project, "heroic mothers of Vietnam", a term recognised by the Vietnam government for women who lost their husbands and sons to the Vietnam War, in Cao Lanh city, Dong Thap province, Vietnam, March 8, 2023.
REUTERS/Thinh NguyenCAO LANH CITY, Vietnam, March 29 (Reuters) - On her trusty motorcycle, Vietnamese artist Dang Ai Viet travels around the Southeast Asian country in a quest to ensure that the thousands of women who suffered the loss of two or more loved ones during the Vietnam War are not forgotten.
The 75-year-old has painted the portraits of 2,765 of the women, who are part of a group known in Vietnam as "heroic mothers", in recognition of their sacrifice during the war that ended in 1975.
During the war, Viet was a guerrilla in the Mekong Delta for the Viet Cong, fighters who backed North Vietnam in the battle against the government of the then South Vietnam and its main ally, the United States.
Some researchers have estimated about 3.8 million people were killed during the war, though estimates of the toll vary.