The UK Department for International Development has just announced new funding to support HALO’s work clearing landmines and making land safe in Zimbabwe. Landmines have had a devastating impact on the people of Zimbabwe, but thanks to UK Aid, land is being made safe and families like the Kashano’s from Chivere are beginning to rebuild their lives.
Meet the Kashano Family
Imagine if your land was split in half by one of the world’s densest minefields. Every inch of soil is precious for growing food or grazing valuable cattle—do you risk crossing mined land or see your family go hungry?
For nine long years, this was the reality for the Kashano family who live near the village of Chivere in Zimbabwe. Three hectares of their land lay on the far side of the deadly Cordon Sanitaire minefield on the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border. With an estimated 5,500 landmines per kilometre, parents Chita and Rose lived in fear of their four children being injured or even killed.
"We knew we were in danger every time we crossed the minefield. When my children walked the path to the field, I made them tread exactly where the cattle tread."
Thanks to UK Government funding from the Department for International Development, HALO has now cleared the land surrounding the Kashano’s homestead—over 5,250 landmines were destroyed in the two adjacent minefields. The family have been able to expand their plot to seven hectares and are growing cotton and maize.
Chita is so relieved that he no longer has to cross the minefield to work his land and that their cattle can graze safely—each cow is worth $350 so losing one to the minefield would have a devastating impact. Most importantly for Rose and Chita, their children can now play freely without fear of landmines.
The new DFID funding means HALO can keep over 200 local men and women employed in the minefields clearing Zimbabwe's landmine legacy and will allow HALO (in conjunction with a consortium of humanitarian landmine organisations) to release an estimated 4,126,544m2 of land to communities—that’s equivalent to more than 575 full size football pitches— so that it can be used for cultivation, grazing livestock and building a more secure future for families like the Kashano’s.
Over the next three years, UK Aid will protect more than 820,000 people from threat of lethal landmines across the world. (Read the full press release here.)
UK Aid funded the training and employment of these Zimbabwean men and women to clear the minefields around the village of Chivere.
Now the landmines are gone, the Kashano children can invite their friends to come and play.
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