Beyond Bombs is HALO’s brand new podcast series. Each episode will feature eyewitness accounts and expert analysis from the men and women who work in 30 countries across the globe to clear the bullets, grenades and landmines left behind by war so that families can rebuild their lives.
Hosted by JJ Chalmers:
JJ Chalmers used to be a Royal Marine commando but was severely injured by an improvised explosive device whilst serving in Afghanistan in 2011. Today he is an Invictus Games Gold medalist, has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing and presented the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
NEW EPISODE
Laos 50 years on
Exactly 50 years since the bombing stopped in Laos HALO is still clearing up unexploded bombs in Laos. JJ Chalmers talks to Sera Koulabdara, CEO of the charity Legacies of War and to William Hunter, who runs HALO's Laos programme.
Listen on your favourite podcast app here.
Earthquakes and other emergencies
JJ Chalmers speaks to HALO's Syria programme manager Damian O'Brien, who was travelling back from Syria when the Turkish-Syria earthquake struck in February. His tale of survival is remarkable. Meanwhile Svitlana, delivers risk education classes for HALO in Ukraine. She was woken up by missiles on the first day of Russia's attack on her country.
Listen on your favourite podcast app here.
somaliland: hope in the horn of africa
Somaliland cannot be found on an official map or atlas, yet has all the characteristics of a functioning state. HALO has demined hundreds of miles of roads and has been its second largest employer. We hear from Chris Pym and Aislinn Redbond on how we're now dealing with a new threat to life: the climate emergency.
Listen on your favourite podcast player here.
Soil restoration on former minefields
the princess and the minefield
In 1997, nobody had heard of the HALO Trust. Few people cared about landmines. Then the most famous woman in the world walked through a minefield being cleared by HALO in Angola. We talk to Paul Heslop, the man charged with escorting Princess Diana and keeping her safe. A walk that highlighted the landmine problem to billions of people around the world.
Listen on your favourite podcast player here.
Princess Diana and Paul Heslop
Series two EPISODE two
Chris Moon: Survivor Extraordinaire
Chris Moon was clearing landmines for HALO in Cambodia in 1993 when he was taken captive by the Khmer Rouge. He is one of the few westerners who survived - and even became friends with one of his captors. He then went to clear mines in Mozambique - only to inadvertently set off a mine in supposedly safe land. He lost an arm and a leg - but then devoted himself to running ultramarathons.
Listen on your favourite platform here
EPISODE six
Ukraine One year on
We hear from risk education education specialist Yulia Chykolba and HALO Ukraine's Imogen Churchill on how HALO relocated from the Donbas to clear landmines laid around Kyiv and Kharkiv during the Russian occupation last year and the importance of educating people on the risks of handling unknown shiny objects in the fields and forests of a country at war.
Listen on your favourite platform here
Episode Five
Robots, Mines, IEDS and 750lbs bombs
The success of the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty has led to a sharp decline in the manufacture and deployment of factory-made landmines, but an unfortunate side effect has been the increase in homemade devices, otherwise known as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). HALO's Pete Smith explains why these are still legally defined as a landmine as they are activated by the victims, while Andy Duncan explains how a new landmine specifically designed to penetrate body armour and sense human presence has been used by Russia in Ukraine. Meanwhile Fiona Kilpatrick talks about the challenges in destroying very large explosive items - in the case, a 750 lb aircraft bomb that had laid buried in a remote Loas village for over 50 years.
Listen on your favourite platform here
750lb bomb in Laos
Episode 4
How social media can map war
Ukraine has been called the TikTok War. In this episode JJ Chalmers explores how we use social media, mapping and drones to find bombs and minefields in Ukraine, Libya and Angola.
Listen on your favourite platform here
EPISODE 3
WOMEN IN DEMINING
HALO has always employed women from war-torn countries to clear their own communities. But how do bombs and conflict affect women differently? And how does a job as a deminer empower women in some of the traditional societies where HALO works? JJ talks to campaigner Camilla Thurlow about her experience working alongside HALO female deminers in Cambodia and Zimbabwe, as well as her time with another organisation in Afghanistan, while Noku Masiyanise from HALO Zimbabwe talks about the challenges faced by rural women in her country and how HALO is providing unique opportunities for them—and how baby boxes and childcare have a role in helping women contribute to making their country safe.
Listen on your favourite platform here
Precious, HALO deminer and mother of baby Tatenda
Learn more:
12 June | NPR
Angola thought women couldn't clear landmines. These women proved them wrong
EPISODE TWO
Ukraine: the new geopolitics
What will be the human cost of clearing Ukraine of landmines and unexploded bombs? What are the wider geopolitical implications of Putin’s war? JJ Chalmers talks with military historian Sir Hew Strachan, Emma Sky, Director of Yale University's International Leadership Centre and HALO’s CEO Major General James Cowan.
Listen on your favourite platform: Acast | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Borodyanka, Kyiv region, Ukraine
Learn more:
10 August | CBS News
Dangers in the forest in Ukraine: Mushrooms and Mines
4 July | Sky News
Sky News: Ukrainian civilians learning the hard way that mines will take years to clear
The shelling of Ukrainian cities has shown the world the horror of conflict in densely populated urban centres. For those of us tasked with clearing unexploded ordnance, the collapsed or ‘pancaked’ concrete buildings that have been reduced to rubble by air or rocket propelled munitions presents an enormous challenge. In this episode, JJ speaks to Dr. Farid Houmayon, Programme Manager of HALO Afghanistan about the urban clearance of Kabul in the 1990s, Simon Conway on lessons learnt from Jaffna to Fallujah and how their experiences will inform HALO Ukraine Manager Mairi Cunningham and her team in Kharkiv and the suburbs of Kyiv. Plus find out how Angelina Jolie lent some vital support...
Listen on your favourite platform: Acast | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Angelina with HALO's team in Sri Lanka in 2003
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