HALO Marks Mine Awareness Day Around the World
From Afghanistan to Myanmar, Kosovo to Sri Lanka, Mine Awareness Day 2018 was marked by HALO’s programmes across the globe. Below is a round-up of some of the highlights from the day.
SRI LANKA
In Sri Lanka over 400 school children took part in a Mine Risk Education drawing competition, organised by our partners Sarvodaya Lanka. Yeromika, pictured below, was one of the participants. She is 10 years old and goes to school in Kilinochchi, Muhamalai, an area that was heavily mined during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Yeromika's painting is of unexploded ordnance she found when collecting firewood with her mother. Her mother told HALO and we were then able to come and safely remove the dangerous items. Yeromika is proud that she knew what to do to stay safe. At school, she loves Environmental Studies and wants to be a teacher one day. HALO’s Mine Risk Education programmes around the world are ensuring a more secure future for thousands of children like Yeromika.
Kosovo
HALO participated in an event hosted by MAT Kosovo in the city of Peja, along with other organisations including the Kosovo Mine Action Centre, Norwegian Peoples Aid and NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR), demonstrating the work HALO and other mine action operators are doing to clear the last remnants of landmines and cluster munitions. Below the team can be seen showing the Belgian Head of Mission, Jean-Louis Servais, how we use specialist detectors (known as HSTAMIDS and Minelabs) to clear landmines and cluster munitions and make the land safe.
Myanmar
In Myanmar, HALO marked Mine Awareness Day at an event in Yangon, explaining to members of parliament the work we do. Whilst in Kayin, the HALO team demonstrated to members of the armed forces and other participants the equipment we use to clear landmines. They also used a field demonstration to show the painstaking work involved in clearing mines so Myanmar can be free of these indiscriminate killers.
Ukraine
In 2017, over 120 people were injured or killed by mines and the explosive remnants of war in Ukraine, including children. Mine Awareness Day was an important opportunity to increase understanding of the mine problem in Ukraine and to help educate people on how to stay safe. Below, British Ambassador to Ukraine, Judith Gough, is photographed learning about the demining process during a demonstration in Kiev. The HALO team also met members of the public, handing out mine risk education materials for them to take back home for their children, to teach them how to recognise dangerous items, and what to do if they come across mines or explosive items while playing.
GEORGIA
The HALO Trust set up in front of the Old Parliament Building on Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi, to share our work with local people. Supervisor, Akaki Mumladze, is pictured below showing a group of school children how to use a mine detector.
Colombia
On Mine Awareness Day, landmine survivor Juan Camilo Pinilla, spoke of his pride working for HALO Colombia and the importance of creating a mine-free world for his daughter.
“ I hope that what happened to me, stepping on an anti-personnel mine, does not happen to anyone else. My daughter loves nature and my dream is that she can enjoy the outdoors without fear and that she can say: ‘My father helped to make sure that I, or any other children, are not hurt by landmines.' "
Juan Camilo works as Logistics Assistant for HALO Colombia as well as volunteering to share the experience of his accident with others to help teach about the risks of landmines. The day was also celebrated by ceremonies returning 14 areas of land cleared by HALO Colombia's deminers to local communities in Tolima and Antioquia.
Afghanistan
HALO Afghanistan attended a mine awareness event at Mar Maren Palace in Kabul, where the UK’s Department for International Development announced £20 million in new funding for landmine clearance in Afghanistan. To date, UK support has freed 80 million square metres of land, meaning hundreds of thousands of Afghan families no longer live in fear of landmines. The new funding will help achieve the goal of a mine-free Afghanistan by 2023.
Local children play football at the handover of Herat in February 2018, where 1,700 mines and 650,000 shells, bullets and bombs were destroyed during HALO's 10-year clearance project.
A HALO deminer clears landmines from around the base of the 15th century Minarets of Herat. UK funding has ensured the protection of this important UNESCO heritage site.
Mine Awareness Day is an opportunity to highlight the life-saving work of our dedicated demining teams, partners and supporters around the world, as together we work towards a future free from the threat of landmines.
