• Mine Risk Education – life-saving information provided to those immediately at risk – is helping repatriated people sustain a safe livelihood in Eastern Equatoria
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Mine Risk Education is helping returnees such as Esther Ato, who came back to Sudan in May after 24 years at a refugee camp in Uganda. |
MAG has been working in Torit County, Eastern Equatoria since 2007, identifying and destroying landmines and items of unexploded ordnance (UXO), and providing essential Mine Risk Education (MRE) to returnees.
One such returnee is thirty-three year old Esther Ato, who came back to Sudan in May 2008, having spent the previous 24 years living at a refugee camp in Uganda.
She left Sudan as a girl with her family, running from the conflict:
“My family and I could not rear our animals, the fights were so intense, the soldiers were destroying the buildings and roads, and there was not place to make any crop grow, so we left,” she explained.
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"We need to know which land we can use, because there are many mines here in Torit." - Esther Ato, Torit |
Esther has now her own family, and together with her husband and six children established their home in a new village close to Torit town, a place where many returning refugees are living and one that they have named Adisababa.
Her story, of returning to a changed Sudan, is a common one:
“I found Sudan very different, the people are now distilling alcohol to make their living, many are also working in the NGOs and others are doing business.
“My husband and I are doing our best to stay in Sudan, but we need to re-learn how to work in the land, the people who have been at the refugees camps hardly remember how to do this – most of us have lost that knowledge. And also we need to know which land we can use, because there are many mines here in Torit.”
The MRE that MAG delivers helps people such as Esther and her family to safely live, work and travel through areas contaminated with landmines and/or UXO, giving them the knowledge and skills required to keep themselves and others safe.
To learn more about these safety activities, visit the Mine Risk Education page in the What we do section of the site.
Links:
- More about MAG's work in Sudan
- More about Mine Risk Education
- More about Community Liaison
- Click on Tags below for related articles
13 January 09
MAG's work in Torit is funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State
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