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Tajikistan National Mine Action CenterAyni 121
Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
www.mineaction.tj
Tel/Fax: (992 37) 227-0947,
221-66-87
Continued Efforts for Mine Risk Education in the Tajik-Afghan Border Regions
10.05.2012
The volunteers of the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan (RCST) continue their Mine Risk Education projects during this year. Local branches of Red Crescent committees show a great effort in educating communities in seven border districts on the hazards that are posed by landmines on the Tajik-Afghan border (Shahritus, Jiliqul, Kumsangir, Panj, Farkhor, Hamadoni and Shuroobod).
Funded by the ICRC, the local MRE volunteers have held 3 MRE Workshops in Farkhor, Hamadoni & Shuroobod, covering 323 participants of the border villages. Up to 3000 people exposed to the hazard have received information and training on the landmine situation and risk. The MRE strategy targets a diverse group of people at risk (students, farmers, shepherds) as well as local authorities (religious leaders, teachers, local government) who have a closer connection to the civilian population. More than 850 MRE visibility materials (posters & brochures) were distributed to 2550 indirect beneficiaries.
All these efforts combine to raise the people’s awareness of the lethal threat around their living space and contribute to decrease the amount of casualties as a result of these remnants of war. The above listed districts are all located in the border areas of Tajikistan to Afghanistan. Russian armed forces have laid the mines in the mid 1990s in the wake of Tajikistan’s civil conflict and its missing abilities to guard the southern perimeter of the former Soviet Union.
Today, these remnants of war seriously impair the social life of the local civilian population and continue to curtail the land available for productive agricultural use. RCST branches on the district level and individual volunteers on the community level have been involved in implementing the MRE Program. Starting in 2001, ICRC has constantly supported RCST in its efforts to raise the awareness of people living in contaminated communities on mine/UXO hazards and has trained them on safe behaviour rules. The project covers all categories of community members, with a special attention to each subgroup’s individual activities and risks (boys, girls, men, women, shepherds, hunters, mine\UXO victims, authorities.
