Cover letter from the Board with donor report

Click here to read the new Donor Report.

Dear friends and supporters

On behalf of The HALO Trust and our fellow board members, we extend our sincere gratitude for your support this past year. Together in 2014 we have positively affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. As the leading organisation of our kind, we promised more than two decades ago to protect lives and restore livelihoods threatened by landmines and the debris of war. Our passion and commitment to that promise has never wavered. Since our founding we have enabled millions of people to return to their homes without fear of death or injury. We are proud to share with you our successes and we ask you to continue in partnership with us. Together we can answer the urgent call to rid the world of this deadly threat.

We can attest to many areas of progress. Fewer people were killed or injured by landmines and other explosive remnants of war in 2013 than in any previous year. The count is now the equivalent of nine victims per day, compared with 25 per day in 1999. We have returned vast agricultural land to productive use; improved access to basic services including clean water, schooling and health care; enabled the development of major infrastructure including roads, railways, reservoirs and power lines and employed thousands of locally recruited staff members, giving them the discipline and self-respect that goes with a well-paid job.

The Donor Report offers extensive details on our accomplishments, but we wanted to share a few of the highlights and approaching milestones:

•After over 20 years of work, Mozambique, once considered one of the world’s most heavily mine affected countries, will be declared free of mined areas in 2015.

•In Sri Lanka, we are working on the last of the dense barrier minefields in the Northern Province, where our work has so far enabled the safe resettlement of over 190,000 people displaced by the war.

•In Cambodia, we recently trained 500 new deminers to tackle the notorious K5 mine-belt along the border with Thailand and returned hundreds of hectares of agricultural land to families for growing crops.

•New mine clearance programmes have commenced work in Armenia and in the West Bank, in response to pressing needs.

•In Afghanistan, despite the security challenges, we continue to expand our geographical reach; employing thousands of men of ‘fighting-age’ and this year assisted tens of thousands of refugees fleeing Pakistan who found themselves stranded on mined land.

Looking to the future, we will carry on as the leader in mine action while using our expertise to address other urgent issues. As the global threat from landmines recedes, we are pioneering new techniques to reduce the casualties caused by unexploded ordnance and to counter the growing threat posed to civilians by badly secured, ageing and unstable ammunition. We have already seen success in the Ivory Coast and Angola and will develop these programmes further in the Central African Republic unexploded ordnance and to counter the growing threat posed to civilians by badly secured, ageing and unstable ammunition. We have already seen success in the Ivory Coast and Angola and will develop these programmes further in the Central African Republic.

One of the areas of focus in the coming year will be South Central Somalia, where we will tackle a whole range of challenges including landmines and badly secured ammunition. Another will be Colombia where there has been an agreement by both sides in the peace process to allow clearance of landmines in previously inaccessible areas. At the same time we will not be deterred from our commitment to finish the job in places like Kosovo and Nagorno Karabakh.

As we celebrate our success through 2014, and importantly thank those who have supported us, we must also honour the vision and dedication of our long-standing Chief Executive and Co-founder Guy Willoughby. He gave us our roots and opened doors for us to do powerful work across the world. Following his departure from HALO this year, we say goodbye to a bold leader and remain united in our vision for a world free from mines and clear of the dangerous debris of war. We are fervent in our search for a new CEO and expect to make an announcement this spring. With your help, we persist onwards to aid the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the most hazardous parts of the world.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Pullinger Cindy McCain
HALO Trust Board Chair HALO USA Board Chair