MAG has responded to a growing need for local initiatives that both increase financial benefits for the community and help mine clearance in Cambodian villages. Locality Demining (LD) is MAG’s new multi-beneficial approach that involves employing and deploying people locally, enabling them to work close to their homes and earn a daily wage.
It differs from the standard mine action model by cutting the need for transportation and accommodation costs and allows for salaries earned to stay within the community. Contracts last up to two years for each LD operator and, within that time, current staff say they are able to get out of debt, provide for their families and improve their overall standard of living. The success of the programme is felt throughout the communities involved.
So far 110 people in Cambodia, some from the poorest backgrounds, have undergone training to the same level as MAG’s standard Mine Action Team (MAT) deminers. They work alongside three experienced members from MAG and also get slightly less pay; traditional MATs can travel some two hours or more to get to a site and still provide the same hours worth of demining. The training and the need to abide by MAG’s strict Standard Operating Procedures is identical, so too is the support they receive from MAG as a respected organisation and innovator in its field.
One deminer says: “Now I can work and get an income every day. I can buy food for my family. Before I used to worry all the time.”
MAG has been working in Cambodia since 1992 and has developed a number of partnerships with rural development Non Government Organisations (NGOs). In the case of LD, we’re working closely with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in selecting suitable employees and ensuring that the benefits are felt in the long-term and after employment has ceased. LWF’s community development workers have a role to play in supporting the deminers and their families with ideas and advice about how to spend and invest the money they earn. Their country representative says: “We always had high confidence in MAG. The locality demining model adds value to our work.”
Geoff Turner, Information and Production Coordinator
February 2005
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