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Rainbow Humanitarianism
   
ERADICATING LANDMINES

RWF is working to clear minefields in Cambodia. We are doing this in partnership with ADOPT-A-MINEFIELD® (UNA). We are focusing on minefields in the Kamrieng, Battambang Lak 62 area. This area contains a very large minefield that has been divided up into five separate pieces. Lak 62 saw fighting from 1979 until 1996 with both the Khmer Rouge and government forces laying thousands of mines. A total of 130 families or 568 people in total are forced to live on land that has been contaminated by landmines and are in constant danger. As a result, 37 people have been involved in landmine-related accidents and five of these have died. Demining this part of this minefield will allow twenty families to resettle on safe land with areas to farm.


About our Partner: ADOPT-A-MINEFIELD® engages individuals, community groups and businesses in the United Nations effort to resolve the global landmine crisis. The campaign helps save lives by raising funds for mine clearance and survivor assistance and by raising awareness about the landmine problem. Sponsors raise funds in their communities to clear their "adopted" minefields and return land to productive use.

Currently, Adopt-A-Minefield® operates in six countries: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Mozambique and Vietnam. Every dollar raised is forwarded to the United Nations for mine clearance. Since the Campaign's launch in March 1999, it has raised over $4 million for mine clearance. To date, 75 minefields have been adopted through the Adopt-A-Minefield program. More than 20 minefields have been cleared and the rest are either in the process of being cleared or scheduled for clearance.

ADOPT-A-MINEFIELD® is coordinated by the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) and the Better World Fund, in partnership with the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, and the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance.

Rainbow World Fund's current funding goal is USD $26,000. RWF has already provided USD $20,000 for this project. Please support our work of making the world safe from landmines.


LANDMINES

An estimated 110 million landmines in 64 countries remain buried and waiting to explode. Anti-personnel landmines were first used during World War I, products of the advent of modern warfare. Since that time their proliferation has been astonishing. In Cambodia, an estimated 10 million remain buried, in Egypt 23 million remain, in Croatia 10 million, in Afghanistan 10 million, in Angola 15 million. An additional 200 million landmines worldwide remain stockpiled waiting to be deployed. Landmines kill or injure three people an hour, 72 a day, 2,200 a month, 26,000 a year, year after year. Eighty percent of the victims are civilians, thousands of them children.

The horrifying toll goes far beyond the cost of lost lives and medical expenses. Entire families, communities, even countries are devastated. If the victim of a landmine is a family's breadwinner, the future of the entire family is jeopardized. Aside from the devastating psychological impact, the family faces major economic consequences. How will the family feed itself? Will the family have to move? Will the children be able to attend school? In Cambodia there are presently over 35,000 amputees requiring ongoing health care and rehabilitation at a tremendous cost to the health care system. Their productivity and ability to contribute to the economic welfare of their families and nation are diminished. The presence of millions of landmines renders vast amounts of farmland unusable. Landmines often kill grazing livestock. The cycle of suffering continues. Demining is an extremely time consuming and costly process. One landmine costs about three dollars to purchase and 300 to 1,000 dollars to deactivate. The cost of eradicating landmines from Cambodia today is three to 10 billion dollars. The economic burden to countries often already struggling economically is staggering. The humanitarian cost is incalculable.