Front Doors Stick

My friend's '95 Passat has a problem. Actually, two. The front doors will hesitantly open from the outside. You have to pull on the handle multiple times to get the doors to open, and the right door has now stopped opening from the outside. How do I fix this? If I have to get to the inside of the door panel to do this, how do I remove the foam without destroying those plastic clips for the panel?

The part of the handle that pushes the latch mechanism will bend & eventually break, sometimes you can repair the handle. The door panel should be removed to get to the electrical connector. I think passatworld.com has a pictoral.