The objective of a mine awareness team is to
teach communities living in mine affected areas how to avoid mine/UXO
accidents, what to do when a mine/uxo is encountered, and how to report the
presence of a mine/UXO to the relevant authority.
There are currently 6 Mine Awareness Teams operating through CMAC. They are
mobile teams that conduct presentations about mine/UXO risk at the village
level, using a range of educational techniques and messages tailored to the
particular needs of those communities. The MAT can pro- vide general mine
awareness advice to local audiences or can provide targeted messages for those
people in the community who are considered high-risk. The MAT play an important
role in gathering information from local communities about contaminated areas
and reporting mine and UXO to the relevant CMAC clearing units. During marking
or clearance operations, the MAT can provide support by informing local people
of the operation procedures and marking signs to ensure their safety. The MAT
can also provide support to the CBMRR project when their target communities
request risk education.
The strength of the MAT lies in its flexibility to respond to mine risk
education requests as and when they arise, and to provide professional
presentations in rural areas. Currently the MAT are deployed in the heavily
contaminated areas of north-west Cambodia.
Community Based Mine Risk Reduction
In recent years, it was felt that mine
awareness needed to develop a more community-oriented approach to reach the
maximum number of people over a longer and sustainable period of time. There
was also a desire to stress "Mine
Risk Reduction". This is because many people
living in mine contaminated areas are often aware that they are living in
dangerous areas, but livelihood pressures and a lack of land security limits
their options and forces them to take risks.
The CBMRR project started in late 2001 and was jointly developed by UNICEF,
Handicap International, Mine Advisory Group, World Vision, World Education, and
MBC.
The main objectives of CBMRR are:
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To establish an effective and sustainable community-based mine risk reduction
network at district, commune, and village level.
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To facilitate the access of mine/UXO affected communities to appropriate mine
action activi- ties, victim assistance programs, and community development
responses.
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To maintain and improve a public information campaign to raise awareness among
mine/ UXO affected communities.
The CBMRR project
aims to reduce the number of mine and UXO casualties by addressing the
livelihood pressures that contribute to risk taking. This is achieved through
district based staff working closely with local communities to identify the
problems caused by mines or UXO's in each community and developing community
action plans to address these problems.
The Cambodian Mine Victim Information System (CMVIS) has defined the 30 highest
priority districts for landmine clearance and education based on the number of
casualties there. CMAC has District Focal Points at 13 of these 30 districts.
Each focal point is in one district, and currently CBMRR operates in 7
districts in Battambang,
4 districts in Banteay Meanchey, and 2 districts in Pailin.
At each District Focal Point, there is 1
CMAC staff. This staff member selects 26 members per district through the
mine/UXO voluntary network to engage in mine risk reduction activities from the
district level, to the commune level, down to the village level. This allows
for a maximum amount of education for the target area. MAT's are also close by
to facilitate training and educational presenta- tions. Thus, access to
appropriate interventions such as mine action, community development, and
victim assistance is facilitated by the CMAC District Focal Points and by
locally elected mine/UXO representatives at the district, commune, and village
level.
Mass Media Campaign
It has been estimated that 97% of Cambodian people have access to television,
and 76% of the people have access to radios. Thus providing mine awareness
education through the media is one of the best and most effective ways of mine
awareness promotion in Cambodia.
Mass media is effective for reinforcing mine awareness messages through clear repetitive broadcasts. The mass media campaign allows CMAC to reach a maximum amount of people throughout
the country, particularly in many of the
provinces where a mine or UXO problem exists but mine action does not.
This is true because most mine casualties
are located in the north and northwestern parts of the country, whereas UXO
accidents tend to be more spread out.
Another effective means of the media campaign are billboards and posters
promoting mine awareness in mine/UXO affected areas where the maximum amount of
people can see them.
