CAN WEST LONDON CLEAR A MINEFIELD?

There are millions of landmines in the ground in over 90 countries in the aftermath of war. The war may be over but the slaughter of innocent civilians, including women and children, goes on. One dies as a result of contact with a landmine every 27 minutes. Others lose limbs and are otherwise maimed for life. Refugees who fled the area during the war cannot return home and farmers cannot cultivate their land, resulting in food shortages. Children cannot even be allowed to play in the fields which are too hazardous.

How can we change this?

Adopt-A-Minefield, an associate charity of the United Nations Association, presents an innovative approach to clearing minefields. Local groups and individuals adopt a minefield of their choice in one of the countries suffering from their presence - Cambodia, Vietnam, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia are examples - and raise money to clear that targeted area. The money is passed to UN agencies and other specialist bodies who perform the clearance. At the end of the process the sponsoring groups know that their money has had a real effect on the lives of people in the cleared area. Millions of mines have been cleared but there are still millions left.

The first steps

The West London United Nations Association is asking local bodies to join with us to set up a local Adopt-A-Minefield activity. For a start we are planning to hold a meeting of interested individuals and representatives of organisations in the area on the evening of Thursday 18 July 2002. The location will be in central Ealing but we are delaying the choice of locale until we have an idea of how many plan to attend. We hope it will be a large number!

So please let me know, as soon as possible, if you can attend. If the date is inconvenient, but you would like to be kept informed please let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Harold Stern
Chair West London UNA
Tel. 020 8997 3776
E-mail: harold.stern@btinternet.com