"My name is Munir Zhour and I live with my young family in the town of Yohmor in southern Lebanon. Our house is modest but safe. I have a small orchard of fruit trees that I can harvest and sell to support my family and my sons’ futures. Because of MAG’s work, these days I feel hopeful, and my family is safe.
Our futures were not always this certain. Over the years, Lebanon has endured much conflict, most recently in 2006 [See how MAG responded to the 2006 conflict]. Before this latest conflict I had work. I was a taxi driver. But, like many of my neighbours, when the fighting between my country and Israel began we had to flee our jobs and our homes in fear of being injured or killed by the intense bombing campaign.
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We went to the nearby town of Sidon and waited until the bombing had ended. In August 2006 we came back to Yohmor and to our home. But my wife and I found our house, our land, our whole livelihood, had been left devastated.
Inside what had once been our home there were now hundreds of lethal unexploded cluster munitions. We could not reach our trees because these small, deadly bombs were all over our land.
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Cluster bombsCluster bombs, or cluster munitions, are weapons which can be dropped from the air or fired from the ground. They release numerous explosive fragments – bomblets, or submunitions. Bomblets which fail to explode on impact pose the threat of death or injury long after conflict is over. Their presence means a lack of access to safe land, limiting agricultural development, the reconstruction of vital infrastructure, and the work of relief and development agencies. More on cluster bombs PHOTO GALLERY: Worldwide scourge of cluster bombs MAG welcomes ratification of Cluster Bomb Ban Treaty |
I felt very scared and worried for my family. Then we learnt of a humanitarian organisation that was working in Yohmor and clearing people’s homes and land after the conflict.
Just a few days after we first found our home destroyed MAG had begun to remove all the cluster munitions that were such a threat to my family. I have now found out that MAG works in many other countries all over the world helping people in similar situations to me.
MAG removed dozens of cluster munitions from my house and garden. Now, after MAG finished the clearance, my family and I can live safely in our house and plant the garden. My children can play again with no fear of any danger. MAG gives us hope to live safely.
The work goes on, and so please may I ask you to support MAG, so more families like mine can build safe futures for themselves."
MAG clears deadly landmines, cluster munitions and other abandoned explosives, collects and destroys weapons, and educates people like Munir Zhour on the dangers of unexploded ordnance.
Please donate securely online to this work. Your money is used to reach communities most in need and enables us to respond quickly to emergency situations.
Other ways to help: Get Involved.
Worldwide scourge of cluster bombs
Click on main image for caption
These images taken by MAG photographer Sean Sutton from a number of countries – Bosnia, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Sudan and Vietnam – show the problems caused by cluster bombs and the solutions provided by MAG.
26 April 2010
MAG thanks the following current donors to its Lebanon programme: UK Department for International Development (DFID) / UKaid; German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Japanese Government; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State. Click on Tags below for related articles.
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