Telethon for mine clearing

This Sunday we had the big NRK Telethon, or TV-aksjonen as we call it in Norwegian. This is a big fund raiser where people can either give donations online, or to the volunteers who show up at their door. I have participated in this several times, and it really is a nice project to be a part of. You meet a lot of nice people when you go around knocking on doors, most of them are happy to give some change to a good cause.

The organization they're raising funds for this year is The Norwegian People's Aid, and their work to clear mines. The countries in focus now are Vietnam, Laos, Sudan, Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Tajikistan, but the organization has already done a lot of work in Cambodia. Cambodia is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, both land mines and UXOs (unexploded ordinances) are a huge problem. These are mostly leftovers from the roughly 500 000 bombs that the US dropped in the late 1960 and early 1970s.

The Cambodian Mine Action Center believes that there are 4-6 million mines left in Cambodia, most of them in rural areas. From 2000-2005 about 850 people died each year because of landmines, since then the number has steadily decreased. One third of the casualties are children, who often starts playing with shiny things on the ground without realizing that is a lethal weapon. 40 000 people life as amputees in Cambodia, one of the highest rates in the world, and I saw many of these people begging in the streets of Phnom Penh. These are mostly victims of land mine explosions.

Here's an interesting clip (in Norwegian) about how different types of mines work. Hard to hear about at times, but I think it's important to know. You can also hear this year's telethon song "Field of fire", by the great band Big Bang.

Photo taken in Cambodia by the Norwegian People's Aid.

This year's telethon was the second best ever held, and it raised about $520,000. Not bad! Let's hope this money will save a lot of lives, and make children be able to run around in the fields of their villages without a care in the world. It's hard to put a price on a safe and peaceful childhood, it's something everyone in the world should get.