The United Nations estimates that over 3,000,000 mines have been laid in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the four-year civil war. The time-consuming, dangerous and expensive process of demining has already begun but there exists a dire need for land mine awareness to help protect the population now that the conflict has ended. The legacy of landmines continues long after the peace accords have been signed. They lay in wait of their victimsunable to discriminate between a soldier on a military mission, a farmer harvesting crops, or a child at play.
Statistics from other countries demonstrate that land mines pose an extreme post-conflict danger. For example, in Cambodia, one person out of 236 has been mutilated by this type of arm. In Angola, 1 out of 470, in the northern part of Somalia, 1 in 1,000 and in Vietnam, 1 in 2,800. Bosnia-Herzegovina has one of the densest mine distributions in the worldover 152 land mines deployed per square mile. The devastation caused by mines in Bosnia will be similar or worse than the situations in Cambodia and Angola.
Aside from the long-term demining efforts, the short and medium term efforts must focus on mine awareness educationtargeting the groups most significantly effected. The development of an interagency strategy for mine awareness education aimed at school-age children will constitute the base of an educational campaign about the dangers of mines in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Building a healthy post-conflict society necessitates equipping its youngest members with essential knowledge about the hazards of mines. Children are the most unprotected victims of land mines. Their natural curiosity and love of play in open areas leaves them vulnerable to mines. Children are less likely to survive a mine explosion because they are closer to the centre of blast and their small bodies cannot survive the loss of blood. Over 50% of victims die from the blast, while the rest are permanently and significantly disabled.
UNESCO has designed, in co-ordination with UNHCR in Somalia and UNICEF in Rwanda, a Mine Awareness Kit, utilising a non-formal methodology aimed at schools and young people. It consists of an instructional packet that facilitates the training of teachers, as well as a video for public education and a road show to bring the educational message to remote areas not adequately reached by the school based message. Building on these successful programmes, a similar programme is being designed by UNESCO/IBE, in co-ordination with UNHCR and UNICEF, to meet the need for mine awareness in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Approximately 3,250 Mine Awareness Kits are necessary in order to reach the estimated 260,000 children enrolled in school in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The production of the kit will be primarily funded by UNICEF. Additionally, twenty to twenty-five teacher-trainers are necessary to reach the approximately 13,400 teachers in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Mine Awareness Kit will address both the rural and urban populations, as well as refugees and displaced persons. The implementation phase is to last 4 to 5 months, cumulating with the instruction of trainers who will then carry out mine awareness teacher-training in-country.
Children, the most likely victims of a post-conflict mine tragedy, must be educated as to the danger that mines pose to their health and safety, their livelihoods and their families. An effective programme must be two-fold in its approach to reach a significant portion of the populationthose fortunate enough to still be receiving formal education as well as those unable to attend school (due to lack of facilities, teacher shortages, displaced persons, etc.).
The need to promote mine awareness among children and disadvantaged groups not attending school is especially acute. Prior to the war, over 500,000 students were enrolled in school; the Permanent Secretary of Education estimated that just over half of that figure remained in school as of 1995. The needs of children not enrolled in school can be most adequately addressed through alternative education media, such as television and radio. A mine awareness video, to be broadcast on national television, as well as radio programmes, will educate those who do not receive mine awareness instruction at school. In an effort to thoroughly cover all at-risk groups (migratory groups, refugees, families in transition, youth in rural areas and areas with the most devastated social services), a travelling road show will produce mine awareness songs, skits and activities around the country. This aspect of the project is still in need of funding and partnerships with interested agencies will need to be established as soon as possible (see Annex V). The multimedia aspects of this programme have the additional benefit of reinforcing awareness of those children who receive mine awareness education in school.
The Mine Awareness Kit as depicted in this document consists of: a curriculum for mine awareness in schools, including lessons and objectives, planned activities and games which will target childrens awareness of mines and their ability to identify mines; a public information video for national television; and a road show travelling theatre group (music and skits) to reinforce education and raise consciousness at both the school and community levels.
The following activities to design and implement an effective mine awareness programme for Bosnia-Herzegovina are now underway:
a) UNESCO/IBE and GINIE (University of Pittsburgh) collected and synthesised relevant mine awareness materials and methods currently available (including reports, project/programme evaluations, on-line resources, etc.). Much of this material can be located on the World Wide Web at http://www.pitt.edu/~ginie/lm/index.
b) A Mine Awareness Kit workgroup was established, with the participation of an UNESCO/IBE expert, educational specialists (Sarajevo), a media designer (for TV and audio work), a military expert from the United Nations in Bosnia, and a graphic designer.
c) This working group (under technical joint co-ordination UNICEF/Sarajevo and UNESCO/IBE) will design a non-formal multimedia kit for schools and community awareness on landmines.
d) Once a prototype kit has been developed, it will be tested in a pilot area in Bosnia agreed upon with the Ministry of Education. Also the impact and results of the first pilot project will be evaluated in co-ordination with UNICEF/Sarajevo and the Ministry of Education (Bosnia). These activities are being funded by UNHCR.
e) UNICEF/Sarajevo will support the mass-production of the kit at a national level, and co-ordinate the distribution and implementation of the programme country-wide.
What follows is the preliminary report of Ms Pamela Baxter, UNESCO/IBE consultant, on her activities while in Sarajevo. Finally, UNESCO/IBE would like to thank the valuable financial contribution of the First European Congress for Education for Peace (Santiago, Spain).
Gonzalo Retamal
Senior Advisor
Education for Humanitarian Assistance
UNESCO/IBE