Hosted by JJ Chalmers:
JJ Chalmers used to be a Royal Marine commando but was severely injured by an improvised explosive device whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2011. Today he is an Invictus Games Gold medalist, has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing and presented the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The continuation of a special two-part series finds JJ Chalmers on the ground in Ukraine, joined by HALO’s Head of Region, Mike Newton, Mohammad “Qaissy” Abufarda, and Sophia Badalian. This episode brings JJ and the team to the resilient village of Hrakove, where they meet de-facto village administrator Anatolii organising aid for the community. As the team journeys back to the HALO Ukraine HQ in Brovary, JJ speaks to interpreter Ivan Yermilov, who recounts his personal experience living through the siege of Mariupol. JJ concludes the series with reflections on the insights and stories shared by everyone along the way, and what lays ahead for Ukraine.
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JJ Chalmers in Hrakove village
Listen in to JJ Chalmers in a special two-part series as he joins HALO on the ground in Ukraine. In this episode, Senior Supervisor Bohdan Hreshko leads the team to the town of Chkalovkse in the Kharkiv region, where a football pitch has become a minefield, and an agricultural field in Mykolaivka that is sown with anti-tank mines instead of crops. JJ speaks to farmers Natalia and Vyacheslav, whose fields are contaminated with mines and tripwires, and whose home was destroyed by an ammunition explosion.
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JJ and Vyacheslav in the remnants of his home
Exactly 50 years since the bombing stopped in Laos HALO is still clearing up unexploded bombs in Laos. JJ Chalmers talks to Sera Koulabdara, CEO of the charity Legacies of War and to William Hunter, who runs HALO's Laos programme.
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JJ Chalmers speaks to HALO's Syria programme manager Damian O'Brien, who was travelling back from Syria when the Turkish-Syria earthquake struck in February. His tale of survival is remarkable. Meanwhile Svitlana, delivers risk education classes for HALO in Ukraine. She was woken up by missiles on the first day of Russia's attack on her country.
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Somaliland cannot be found on an official map or atlas, yet has all the characteristics of a functioning state. HALO has demined hundreds of miles of roads and has been its second largest employer. We hear from Chris Pym and Aislinn Redbond on how we're now dealing with a new threat to life: the climate emergency.
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Soil restoration on former minefields
In 1997, nobody had heard of the HALO Trust. Few people cared about landmines. Then the most famous woman in the world walked through a minefield being cleared by HALO in Angola. We talk to Paul Heslop, the man charged with escorting Princess Diana and keeping her safe. A walk that highlighted the landmine problem to billions of people around the world.
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Princess Diana and Paul Heslop
Chris Moon was clearing landmines for HALO in Cambodia in 1993 when he was taken captive by the Khmer Rouge. He is one of the few westerners who survived - and even became friends with one of his captors. He then went to clear mines in Mozambique - only to inadvertently set off a mine in supposedly safe land. He lost an arm and a leg - but then devoted himself to running ultramarathons.
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We hear from risk education education specialist Yulia Chykolba and HALO Ukraine's Imogen Churchill on how HALO relocated from the Donbas to clear landmines laid around Kyiv and Kharkiv during the Russian occupation last year and the importance of educating people on the risks of handling unknown shiny objects in the fields and forests of a country at war.
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The success of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty has led to a sharp decline in the manufacture and deployment of factory-made landmines, but an unfortunate side effect has been the increase in homemade devices, otherwise known as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). HALO's Pete Smith explains why these are still legally defined as a landmine as they are activated by the victims, while Andy Duncan explains how a new landmine specifically designed to penetrate body armour and sense human presence has been used by Russia in Ukraine. Meanwhile Fiona Kilpatrick talks about the challenges in destroying very large explosive items - in the case, a 750 lb aircraft bomb that had laid buried in a remote Loas village for over 50 years.
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750lb bomb in Laos
Ukraine has been called the TikTok War. In this episode JJ Chalmers explores how we use social media, mapping and drones to find bombs and minefields in Ukraine, Libya and Angola.
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HALO has always employed women from war-torn countries to clear their own communities. But how do bombs and conflict affect women differently? And how does a job as a deminer empower women in some of the traditional societies where HALO works? JJ talks to campaigner Camilla Thurlow about her experience working alongside HALO female deminers in Cambodia and Zimbabwe, as well as her time with another organisation in Afghanistan, while Noku Masiyanise from HALO Zimbabwe talks about the challenges faced by rural women in her country and how HALO is providing unique opportunities for them—and how baby boxes and childcare have a role in helping women contribute to making their country safe.
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Precious, HALO deminer and mother of baby Tatenda
What will be the human cost of clearing Ukraine of landmines and unexploded bombs? What are the wider geopolitical implications of Putin’s war? JJ Chalmers talks with military historian Sir Hew Strachan, Emma Sky, Director of Yale University's International Leadership Centre and HALO’s CEO Major General James Cowan.
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Borodyanka, Kyiv region, Ukraine
The shelling of Ukrainian cities has shown the world the horror of conflict in densely populated urban centres. For those of us tasked with clearing unexploded ordnance, the collapsed or ‘pancaked’ concrete buildings that have been reduced to rubble by air or rocket propelled munitions presents an enormous challenge. In this episode, JJ speaks to Dr. Farid Houmayon, Programme Manager of HALO Afghanistan about the urban clearance of Kabul in the 1990s, Simon Conway on lessons learnt from Jaffna to Fallujah and how their experiences will inform HALO Ukraine Manager Mairi Cunningham and her team in Kharkiv and the suburbs of Kyiv. Plus find out how Angelina Jolie lent some vital support...
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Angelina with HALO's team in Sri Lanka in 2003
