Survivors’ Assistance

MLI’s Survivors’ Assistance program helps people, particularly children, who have been injured by mines by providing prostheses, rehabilitative treatment, vocational training in areas such as carpet weaving, embroidery and tailoring, and physicians’ training so doctors can become experts in the field of rehabilitation in their native, mine-affected countries.

Why Survivors’ Assistance

The destruction caused by landmines doesn’t end when the bomb detonates and the debris settles. Those who survive are left with life-altering injuries

For children who are injured by landmines, their physical injuries are often more severe than adults, their emotional trauma greater, and their economic prospects significantly bleaker. The majority of child mine victims have little chance of going to school, receiving the prostheses or medical care they need, learning skills that could help them adapt to their new condition, or marrying when they grow up.

For adult mine victims, the challenges can be overwhelming and they typically have great difficulty finding employment and are unable to support themselves or their family members.

Therefore, MLI works to provide medical treatment, and vocational and computer education classes to help landmine survivors and their families.

Successes

Please visit Where We Work for complete details on programs in various countries. Some highlightsinclude:

• In Afghanistan, an estimated 26,000 people have participated in landmine awareness meetings; No mine incidents were reported in the areas where people received awareness training.

• Also in Afghanistan, 120 mine survivors, including 35 women, received wheelchairs, crutches, canes and orthotic socks; 10 survivors learned computer skills; and 1 boy and 2 girls were taken to Jalalabad International Red Cross Hospital to be fitted for and receive prosthetic limbs.

• In Azerbaijan, MLI trained 12 family members of survivors in carpet weaving, embroidery and tailoring techniques. MLI also donated a computerized embroidery machine and raw materials to a local training center and four sewing machines were awarded to the highest-achieving graduates to encourage the young women to start their own ventures.

• In 2010/2011 MLI, the MDDC, the International Trust Fund for Humanitarian Demining and the Fantomi Sitting Volleyball Team partnered to implement an interactive Mine Risk Education program that utilizes sports to engage mine-threatened populations in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

• MLI is currently implementing a program in Iraq to provide specialized rehabilitation training to Iraqi physicians living and working in mine-contaminated areas in Iraq. In 2011, 6 Iraqi physicians (2 doctors, 2 prosthetists and 2 rehabilitation therapists) will travel to a world class training facility in Bosnia-Herzegovina to participate in a training course on the treatment of traumatic injuries. The physicians will then return to their home clinics and hospitals to apply their acquired knowledge to their practices.

• MLI is partnering with the Yemen Mine Action Center (YEMAC) and the Yemen Association for Landmine Survivors (YALS) to provide vocational training to unemployed landmine survivors and other selected disabled war victims in Yemen. This vocational rehabilitation includes computer training, hand/machine-sewing and beading classes.

Survivor Stories

Thanks to individual and corporate sponsors MLI has provided assistance to hundreds of landmine survivors. Learn more about their stories.