100 Women Making Angola Safe
Learn about The HALO Trust’s ambitions to demine Angola
Inspired by the recent Now This profile of The HALO Trust’s work to build a team of 100 women deminers in Angola, I caught up with Chris Pym and Rachel Boddy for a 60 second interview to find out more. Before we get going you should know this:
- Between 1975 and 2002 Angola suffered one of Africa’s longest and deadliest civil wars. The fighting left a legacy of landmines and ammunition, which have cost thousands of lives with an estimated 80,000 injured.
- Since starting working in Angola in 1994, The HALO Trust has destroyed more than 92,000 landmines and 162,000 items of unexploded ordnance. The HALO Trust have cleared more than 800 minefields and 22,600 hectares of land.
- There are more than 620 minefields mapped and recorded in the eight provinces.
What is The HALO Trust all about?
The HALO Trust is the world’s largest humanitarian mine clearance organisation. We save lives and restore communities threatened by landmines and other weapons of war, such as cluster bombs, stockpiles of small arms and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Why do you want more women involved?
Many women in rural Angola are in low-paid or informal employment, or out of work. Having seen success in female demining projects in our other programmes around the world such as Cambodia, Sri-Lanka and Laos, we wanted to bring the project to Angola to empower women. Our male and female deminers are paid the same wage for the same job, promoting gender equality and fair pay. We also want to promote Angola’s objective to promote women in employment generally as part of their international commitments to gender equality.
How are you making this happen?
We are recruiting women from rural, mine-impacted communities. Those interested in joining us are interviewed and undertake a one-month training course. If they pass the training course, where they learn mine clearance and paramedic training, then they will start clearing minefields in rural areas.
Who currently funds this?
Our 100 Women in Demining Project is currently funded by private foundations like the Swiss organisation World Without Mines. As of this month, we have employed 40 women but require more funding to reach our goal of 100.
How can folk help out?
Two simple ways for people to get involved.
- Watch the video, be inspired and share it as widely as you can with your social networks to help us get the message out there!
- Give. To realise our vision we need more support and you can play a part in this inspirational story by visiting our website and making a donation.
