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Understanding the effects of mines and UXO: playing football with one leg. |
Read how MAG's Community Liaison activities in southern Sudan reduce the risk to communities threatened by the remnants of conflict.
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As part of our role in reducing the risk to communities threatened by the presence of landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), MAG Sudan visited an orphanage and boarding school in Nimule, in the southern county of Magwi.
“Some of the children living here were abducted by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) when they were very young, and we have only managed to rescue them recently,” Pastor Joseph Ulego, head of the Shekinah Orphanage and Basic Primary School, explained. “We don’t know who their parents are and neither do they. Other children here lost their parents during the conflict. We do all we can to keep them safe now.”
Location of the school |
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View Shekinah Basic Primary School in a larger map |
The MAG Community Liaison (CL) team provided all the children with a Mine Risk Education session. The children, aged one to 17, were shown pictures of the most common landmines and UXO found in southern Sudan and were given a very simple yet super important message:
Do not touch them. Tell your guardian or teacher if you see them.
Next, the CL team helped the children to understand the effects of playing with mines and UXO, using role-play activities. Six-year-olds James and Emmanuel were chosen to try playing football with just one leg, while Saima and Oremama, both 11, collected bricks to help build a house with just one arm.
These activities caused a lot of laughter, but the message was clear: “Playing with a mine or UXO can hurt you very badly,” said eight-year-old Fiona. “You may lose your arm or leg and then you cannot do many things. Maybe you can even die.”
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Eleven-year-old Saima collects bricks with one arm. |
The children were also encouraged to ask advice about safe areas, to walk along well-used paths and to stay away from areas marked with Danger: Mines signs.
After practising walking in between red and white markers, seven-year-old Peter proudly told all the other children, “Even if my tummy hurts and I need to defecate, I will not stray off the safe road”.
Pastor Joseph was happy that the CL team explained such practical information: “Young children need advice about everything to keep them safe. We should not be embarrassed of talking about such things when they can save a child’s life”.
Following the Mine Risk Education session, members of class P5 were invited to close their eyes and imagine their homeland without any landmines or UXO, without any dangers, without any remnants of war. Each child then drew a picture of what they had imagined.
Ben drew a picture of himself chasing a monkey out of a mango tree full of ripe fruit. Mangwi drew a picture of himself safely collecting firewood in the bush, while Stephen and Emmanuel drew pictures of themselves hunting rabbits and fishing. Zuru drew a picture of herself and her friends playing netball freely in a field behind her school, and Lilian drew herself farming.
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Class P6 with their letter of hope to a school in northern Sudan. |
The pictures were later put up on the walls to decorate the school and to fill each class hut with hopes for a better, safer and more peaceful future.
The older children of class P6 were invited to write a collective letter to the students of a school in northern Sudan, where MAG is also providing MRE. The letter wished the students well in their studies and contained a message of hope and peace for the future:
Dear Class,
We want to have peace with you. We hope you succeed in your education. Let us all pray hard so that we will have peace in our country and a peaceful referendum in January 2011. We wish you good luck in your football and other sport competitions. We hope you stay safe from landmines. We hope we will stay safe too. Please tell your parents about the dangers of mines and UXO. We are sending you our love. We want all of us to continue with our studies in peace.
MAG’s visit was timed to coincide with Peace Day 2010, on 21 September.
“Celebrating Peace Day has really helped our children to hope for a better future in their country – a future of freedom from the threat of landmines and a future of peace,” said Pastor Joseph. “Now we know how to protect ourselves. Congratulations and thank you MAG for celebrating Peace Day with us here today.”
MAG CL teams in Sudan continue to provide vital Mine Risk Education to adults and children every day of the week, in orphanages, schools, market places, boreholes, villages, religious sites, community centres and way stations.
MAG's work in Sudan not only reduces the risk to communities that are threatened by the presence of mines, UXO and SALW, but supports the country's overall recovery from conflict. By destroying weapons and munitions that could otherwise be used to fuel further conflict, MAG improves human security and the prospect of peace within the region.
MAG thanks the following donors to our Sudan operations: Actiefonds Mijnen Ruimen; AECID, Spanish Government; Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, US Department of State; Canadian International Development Agency; Canadian Ministry Of Foreign Affairs; Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission; Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, US Department of State; UKaid (Department for International Development); United Nations.
Reporting by Marysia Zapasnik, MAG Sudan Community Liaison Manager
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MAG Community Liaison staff provide Mine Risk Education. |
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The MAG Sudan Community Liaison team. [All photos: MAG Sudan] |
8 October 2010
See also:
- Why does MAG work in Sudan?
- More on Community Liaison
- More on Mine Risk Education
- Peace One Day [external link]
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