Hesty, Stephen & Cockermouth

Mines Advisory Group (MAG) started in a caravan in my hometown of Cockermouth in the UK, and has blossomed over the last two decades into a major worldwide organisation dedicated to making war-torn areas safer by surveying and removing landmines and unexploded ordnance. They were co-recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for their work on the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and are well-deserving of all the funds we can raise.

Here is a 23-minute film, “Surviving the Peace“, which focuses on Laos and outlines how they work and the lasting impacts their work has on the lives of survivors of war. If you want to support them, please make a donation via my Biology4Good page for MAG, on JustGiving.

Updated for International Mines Awareness Day 2013 (4 April), here is a new video on “Surviving the Peace: Angola“:

From the MAG Website:

“After more than 27 years of civil war (1975-2002), Angola is one of the most landmine-affected countries in the world.

These deadly weapons don’t discriminate between soldiers and civilians, nor between adults and children.

They:

• cause death and injury to people carrying out their everyday activities;

• deny communities access to their farming land and water sources;

• cause food insecurity and poverty;

• deny movement, leaving communities socially and economically isolated;

• prevent refugees and internally displaced people returning home;

• hamper rehabilitation and post-conflict reconstruction;

• leave populations living in fear.

MAG is removing the threat of injury and death in Angola, and helping to alleviate economic devastation.”

 

Make a donation here.