MAG Lao is clearing school grounds for the ‘Partnership for safe educational opportunities’ project, implemented in conjunction with The Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI) and International Relief & Development (IRD).
Ban Khagnou school in Boualapha district, Khammouane province, lies in the area where the Ho Chi Minh trail ran. The district was heavily bombed in the war.
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A bombie just metres from an HDI target school |
UXO accidents involving youngsters are often as a result of children playing with these submunitions, which are usually the size of a tennis ball. Some types of bombie are particularly attractive to children.
"One day, a student informed her teacher that two of her classmates were playing with Ka Doan fruit in the classroom," says Mr Gnor. "The teacher thought nothing of it – Ka Doan is a fruit. Later on, another teacher saw the children and realised they were playing with a BLU 26 [a type of submunition that is a very similar in colour, shape and size to the Ka Doan fruit].
"The teacher stopped the games immediately and a potentially fatal accident was avoided."
Mr Gnor said that, previously, the UXO contamination around the school had prevented them from expanding the playground or building toilets.
MAG cleared the area in January 2008, finding and destroying 14 submunitions, two mortars and a projectile. The project will now be able to build toilets and set up a vegetable garden on the school grounds, allowing the nutritional health of the children to be improved.
Eleven-year-old Bounma says that her parents used to be worried about the risk from UXO at the school, but that this is not the case anymore. "My dream is to keep studying so that one day I can become a teacher," she says.
Tom Morgan, MAG Lao Communications Officer
Links:
» More on MAG's work in Lao PDR
» The Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI)
» International Relief & Development (IRD)
27 March 08
