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Landmine survivor Pia (centre) with her sister Anna and her nieces. |
“I thought I was a victim – MAG helped me realise that I’m a survivor! Stepping on that landmine changed my life. Working with MAG this week has changed my life again.”
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In September 1999, Pia Aguti left her village in Chukkudum, Budi County, and walked with her friends and their young children out into the surrounding countryside to pick mangoes. It was a hot day and her girls were too tired to walk so had stayed at home with their grandmother. Pia walked on ahead of her friends, proudly leading the way and singing a song about rain.
She stepped on a landmine.
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Pia and her daughter Elizabeth. |
Pia does not remember the trip to the hospital. Villagers had carried her bloody unconscious body on a makeshift stretcher and walked for three kilometres, crying and praying all the way.
Pia barely even remembers her two-month stay in the hospital. Her leg was blown off at the knee, she had lost a lot of blood and her weakened body was unable to fight off infections.
The local doctor tried all he could to help Pia, but in the end the only solution was to send her to a better equipped hospital across the border in Kenya. She stayed there for a further two months, slowly regaining her strength and learning how to use crutches.
After the accident, Pia’s husband, a lieutenant in the army, left her. She has not heard from him since. She has struggled learning how to walk with her crutches, navigating her way around thorny bushes, rocks, potholes and the discarded rubbish that litters the roads in her area.
Psychological wounds
D.R. CONGO: A mine survivor's story |
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"We are not in a position to know where or what these
dangerous items are. We often bring our children with us when we work in
the fields and they can easily find these unexploded devices. They must
be removed." |
Although the physical wounds caused by landmines are often horrific, the psychological and social impact is also extremely important.
“The day I returned home to Chukkudum was a very emotional one,” explains Pia. “I was happy to see my children again, so happy to see my babies, but I was also scared. How could I provide for them now, with just one leg? I was a farmer. I grew maize and sorghum and beans and cowpeas. Without crutches I couldn’t walk. How could I dig, plant, harvest? I thought of hanging myself, but I couldn’t leave my children all alone.”
For many years she felt like a victim, seeing herself as merely a sum of all the things she was no longer able to do alone: farming, gathering firewood, fetching water, fixing the roof of her tukul, carrying food back from the market.
Supporting accident survivors
When MAG arrived in her village, on one of our regular Mine Risk Education (MRE) operations in the region, we met with Pia and asked her about her story. We asked her if she would be willing to help us teach her local community about the dangers of mines. As a special guest, she would add an important personal touch to the safety messages MAG was spreading.
It was the first time since the accident that someone had told her that she can do something, and something very special; that she was an important person and a productive part of the community.
“It was the first time someone had called me a survivor,” recalls Pia. “Of course, I had always been a survivor, but I didn’t realise it. When the MAG Community Liaison Officer looked me in the eye and told me I was a very strong woman who was doing an amazing job bringing up my family, something happened inside me. I suddenly had confidence and I felt full of energy.”
An important part of MAG’s approach is supporting survivors of landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) accidents in this way. Although Pia’s disability and physical limitations will be lifelong, her sense of being a victim and a burden on her family and community can be lessened. Pia agreed to help MAG and shared her story with schoolchildren, parents, traders, herders and farmers.
'I am still a mother'
As a special guest of the MAG MRE team, Pia was respected and appreciated by the people of Chukkudum. For the first time since the accident, she felt like a productive member of her community and a vital contributor to her family.
“I cook for my children and comfort them. I tell them stories and listen to their problems. I am still a mother. One leg or two legs, I am still a mother,” she says, and hugs her youngest daughter Elizabeth.
Helping MAG has given Pia a new boost in confidence. “I thought I was a victim – MAG helped me realise that I’m a survivor! I am a very useful member of my community. I have something to offer: I can help the people in my village to stay safe. Stepping on that landmine changed my life. Working with MAG this week has changed my life again.”
MAG thanks the current 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 (CIDA); Canadian Ministry Of Foreign Affairs; Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT); 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, Community Liaison Manager, Kapoeta, Sudan
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Schoolchildren in Pia's village are given Mine Risk Education by MAG Community Liaison staff. |
3 November 2010
See also:
- Why does MAG work in Sudan?
- More on Community Liaison
- More on Mine Risk Education
- Donate to MAG online - more than 90 per cent of MAG's income is spent directly on clearance programmes
- Other ways to Get Involved - shop, run, walk, skydive, drink wine...
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