By Amy Currin | Program Officer, HALO USA
Mineclearance not only saves lives and returns land to productive use, it also creates jobs. Across the ten countries where HALO currently works, we employ over 8,000 local men and women—from deminers to senior management, mechanics, medics and finance and mapping specialists. The income that local staff earn enables them to send a child to school, start a small business or purchase livestock, thus building a more secure future once their country is free from the impact of mines.
In Cambodia, HALO employs 1,100 local staff. Below is an interview with Ms. Kann Sophorn (age 24), who is a Section Commander (manager) in Malai District.
Ms. Kann Sophorn
Family: Her mother, father and five brothers and sisters; she is the first sister in the family. She supports the family of seven with her HALO salary.
Education: Grade 4
Jobs before HALO: She was a farmer (rice farming) and casual worker in the village.
Why did her family move to the area? They moved to because of the lack of agriculture land in their previous village.
How does she feel about her work? “Before I started working, I was scared of mine accidents but after starting work it is normal because The HALO Trust has right procedures. Now I’m not scared any more. I am happy and proud of my work, because I can earn money to support my whole family and I can help the villagers in my village and others from mine accidents. I can help my country.”
What activities does she enjoy? Reading books and listening to music.
Final thoughts: “I am very happy to work with HALO and very thankful to the donors, especially people in United States which give money to HALO for supporting mineclearance in my village and in Cambodia. I would like you continue donating to support mineclearance.”
Thank you for supporting mineclearance and through it a local family.
Sincerely,
Amy Currin, HALO USA Program Officer
P.S. We need your help to make sure we reach our project goal. Do you have any friends or family that would be interested in this project that you could share it with? Or do you have any ideas on how we can spread the word? If so, we would love to hear from you! You can reach me on amy.currin@halousa.org or +1.415.986.4852
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
