Three students at Luanda International School are contacting other schoolchildren around the world in the hope of persuading non-signatory governments to sign the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty – the international agreement that bans anti-personnel landmines.
“We did not know that there were landmines in Angola. It was through MAG that we found out about them and we were really, really shocked that there are landmines in the country we live in,” says 11-year old-Nikita, “that’s why we decided to make our school project about landmines.”
South African Nikita studies at the Luanda International School in Angola’s capital city, where students were tasked with looking at a social issue in the country and coming up with a plan of action to contribute. While a diverse range of issues were tackled, from turtle protection and chimpanzee conservation to pollution and malaria, Nikita and grade six classmates Qistina, from Malaysia, and Angolan-born Tania undertook intensive research on landmines and held talks with MAG Angola staff.
 |
|
(Left to right): LIS students Qistina (aged 12), Tamia (11) and Nikita (11) |
On learning about the Ottawa Treaty, or the Mine Ban Treaty, (formerly the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction), they were appalled to discover that not every country in the world was a signatory. “We were amazed that even some big countries like America and China didn’t sign the treaty,” says 12-year old Qistina.
The girls put their heads together and looked at ways in which they could force all countries to sign the treaty. “We decided to write to children in other international schools in the countries that didn’t sign,” explains Tania, “telling them about the problem of landmines in Angola.”
Nikita continues: “Maybe like us before, they don’t know anything about landmines, or that their governments did not sign the Treaty against landmines.” Adds Tania: “Then they should pressurise their own governments to sign the treaty.”
 |
|
The girls working on their project.
|
Tania, Qistina and Nikita have drawn up their list of non-signatory countries, and are now in the process of trying to make contact with other children in all of these countries. The girls realise that it won’t be easy to make these governments sign.
However, they believe that even the smallest step is a step forward. The more people they can make aware of the issues, the more people will join them in taking action, and the greater the steps forward will be. They know that they too can make a difference.
It is not just the MAG posters all over the school compound or the MAG stickers on all of the classroom doors that demonstrate The Luanda International School’s ongoing support for MAG’s activities in Angola. Every October the school holds its annual Mine Awareness Week in which all classes, from primary up to secondary, discuss the issues surrounding landmines. Last year the school organised a poster competition, in which all the children designed their own mines awareness poster.
Fundraising on behalf of MAG is also an annual activity on the school calendar. Every year it holds a charity golf tournament, from which all proceeds are donated directly to MAG Angola. Through its partnership with MAG, the issue of landmines has become one of their main community and service projects.
Links:
» More news on MAG Angola
» Luanda International School website
10 March 08
MAG’s work in Angola is funded and supported by: Adopt-A-Minefield; DFID (UK Department for International Development); Luanda International School; Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State; Overseas Aid Commission, Guernsey.
