Support APOPO's Minefield Survey HeroDOGs

As always, thank you so much for your incredible support over the last quarter. As you know, the work of our HeroDOGs is a vital part of landmine clearance operations. In the mine action sector, it is widely accepted that one of the essential conditions for increasing efficiency is to ensure land that is least likely to be contaminated is released by low-cost survey methods, rather than by very expensive mine clearance methods, as is often the case. 

The basic principles of Land Release are generally accepted, but effective and reliable implementation in the field is complex. An effective technical survey tool is one that can be applied in most areas, regardless of the difficulties caused by terrain and vegetation. This is where the HeroDOGs come into their own - they can travel through even the densest of vegetation and their amazing sense of smell means that they can detect the scent of explosives from one meter away, at which point the HeroDOG stops and sits. This sitting motion allows the dog handler to pinpoint a one-meter squared radius around the dog, in which the landmine or remnant of war is located. This means APOPO need only remove the vegetation around the suspected area, whereas previously, all vegetation was removed, detrimental to the ecosystems in which we work globally. 

Your support during the last quarter has enabled us to continue our operations in the countries we work in, such as Cambodia, South Sudan, and Turkey, and excitingly, we have also expanded our operations. We are delighted to let you know that we are now working in Senegal. Senegal's remaining contamination is approximately 2.5 km2, mainly in the Casamance region.

APOPO has developed a proposal together with Humanity and Inclusion (HI) and received a grant from the Dutch Government to expand the mine clearance project in Casamance by adding a HeroDOGs (technical survey dog) team. The team mobilized last month and will begin operations after the HeroDOGs teams have been accredited. The project is being implemented with HI, which is the main mine clearance operator in the country, in the hopes of accelerating the land release and bringing Senegal to a mine-free status by 2025.   

Your support is bringing the world a little bit closer to being mine-free and in fact, in the last quarter, our HeroDOGs have cleared 668,455 square meters of land, which is a huge amount of land now declared safe for communities in need. Our HeroDOGs have also detected and aided in the removal of 34 landmines, or unexploded remnants of war, across the countries in which they work. 

Our HeroDOGs honestly could not do what they do, without support such as yours! 

With huge thanks and best wishes,

The APOPO Team

Links:

• APOPO Website
• HeroDOGs FAQs

As always, thank you for your continued support of our HeroDOGs and what another incredible year we have had thanks to your generosity. We welcome 2023 with renewed determination to save lives and hope that you have a wonderful year ahead too!

Round up of 2022!

Our teams worked tirelessly throughout 2022 and with your support, a total of 7,830 landmines and unexploded remnants of war have been found and destroyed by our teams globally and almost 11 million square meters of land have been cleared! 

The horrors of landmines cannot be ignored – every year over 5,000 people are maimed or killed by a landmine or unexploded ordnance (UXO) and devastatingly half of civilian victims are children. Every landmine that you helped detect and remove from the ground prevents another accident. Thank you.

The removal of remnants of war does more than prevent injury and death, it unshackles people from poverty – allowing people to create infrastructure, expand communities, grow crops, graze cattle, and travel safely to school or work. Your support enables a higher socio-economic standard for the people we serve and allows APOPO to execute our core values.

Your support last year helped us expand our areas of operation across the world, with a new team of HeroDOGs deployed in Turkey. With this expansion, it was necessary to train more technical survey dog handlers and a 14-week intensive course was held in Cambodia in collaboration with the Cambodian Mine Action Center, where six men and three women graduates joined the expanding operational teams. This expansion of our operations is only possible thanks to your support - thank you so much.

Coming up

25 years after the Ottawa Landmine Treaty was drafted to ban landmines, there is still work to be done. Our HeroDOG operations will continue apace in our countries of operation to save lives and provide opportunities for communities suffering from the deadly legacies of war. We will also be looking at new regions where our amazing HeroDOGs can expedite the release of land in some of the most war-damaged countries in the world.

APOPO's aim is to become the go-to resource in accelerating the pace of landmine clearance using detection animals as the world races to accomplish the Ottawa Treaty target of eliminating all landmines. Thank you for supporting us last year and we hope your support will continue throughout 2023 - we are certainly looking forward to updating you on our activities!

With huge thanks and best wishes,

Emma

Links:

• APOPO's HeroDOGs