Vientiane, August 8, 2024 – Following a UK fundraising appeal in 2022, MAG has successfully completed a year-long project in Laos, as a direct result of donations received through the campaign.
The ‘Unlock the Land’ appeal raised close to £450,000, including £211,336 of matched funding from the UK government.
The project, running from April 2023 to March 2024, focused on searching for and clearing unexploded bombs from the village of Vangkhom, in southern Khammouane Province, a community hit by over 6,000 bombing missions during the Vietnam War.
In total, 174,748 m2 (104% of the clearance target) - a number equivalent to 32 football fields - was cleared of over 173 items of unexploded ordnance, and safely returned for agricultural purpose and for development projects such as house construction and expanding the village area.
The Unlock the land campaign also enabled MAG teams to organise explosive ordnance risk education sessions with community members, helping them to identify, avoid, and report unexploded items to MAG.
In total, the project benefitted 254 people, including 111 children, who have grown up in a country that is, per capita, the most bombed in the world.
Darren Cormack, MAG’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are tremendously grateful to everyone who contributed to this project. It’s a wonderful example of people coming together, from the UK to Laos, to changes lives for the better.
We are also very grateful to the UK government, who generously matched donations, and supported us throughout.
To be able to return safe land to the people of Vangkhom, to see their children able to play free from the fear of accidentally detonating a bomb, and to see their land grow crops that will benefit thousands, is precisely why we do what we do.”
Mel Barlow, UK Ambassador to Laos, noted: “We are grateful that so many people in the UK generously donated to this project and delighted that the UK Aid Match was able to match donations for such a worthy cause.
This project demonstrates how UK aid is used as a partnership with vulnerable communities, helping them recover from the devastating consequences of war and conflict, and rebuild a thriving and safe community.
We are proud to be a supporter of MAG's work, both in Laos and around the world.”
To learn more about UK Aid Match, click here.
To learn more about MAG’s work in Laos, click here.
ENDS
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NOTES TO THE EDITOR
The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a global humanitarian and advocacy organisation that finds, removes and destroys landmines, cluster munitions and unexploded bombs from places affected by conflict.
MAG also provides education programmes, particularly for children, so people can live, work and play as safely as possible until they clear the land.
The organisation, which employs some 6,000 people in over 30 countries, also delivers work to reduce armed violence by educating people about the risks of small arms and light weapons and by destroying and marking weapons and helping authorities to safely store arms and ammunition.
Since 1989, MAG has helped over 20 million people in 70 countries rebuild their lives after war. In 1997, MAG shared the Nobel Peace Prize for its role in banning landmines.
More info: https://www.maginternational.org
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For media enquiries, please contact MAG’s Communications Team
In the UK:
+44 (0)7872964915
Email: press@maginternational.org
In Laos:
Katie Harrison (English)
Grants and Communications Manager
katie.harrison@maginternational.org
+856 20 555 35913
Phutsaphone Khounlivong (Lao/English)
Communications Manager
phutsaphone.khounlivong@maginternational.org
+856 20 555 29573
