2017 marked two decades since the Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Treaty) was adopted and signed by 122 countries in Ottawa, Canada. The treaty, which bans the use, production and storing of landmines, now lists 163 countries as signatories, whose representatives have come together to assess the current situation, discuss challenges and confirm commitments for a mine-free world by 2025.
Over 40 million landmines have been destroyed by state parties signed to the treaty, and 143 of them no longer hold a stockpile. This represents an outstanding rate of compliance. Most importantly, the number of new mine victims has fallen.
“After 20 years, the Ottawa Treaty has significantly driven the clearance and destructions of millions of landmines all over the world as well as raised awareness of the plight of people still living in terror due to these insidious weapons.” - Håvard Bach, Head of APOPO Mine Action.
Working Together
The international mine action community has set a target to make the world free of landmines by the year 2025 and much work needs to be done in order to achieve this goal. People living in countries from Angola to Cambodia and Zimbabwe, do so in daily fear from these savage remnants of conflicts that ended decades ago.
Land Freed and Lives Saved
Loun has been farming the land with her daughter out of desperation, despite the fear.
"I’ve worked on this land for the last 3 years and I always worried that landmines lay hidden here – there have been so many accidents nearby. But I had no choice, I had to feed my family and send my daughter to school. She works with me sometimes on weekends for extra pocket money.
Last month, APOPO and their partner the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC), arrived to search the fields for old explosives. They bought with them some rats that they said could find the landmines, and we laughed. But why not, as long as they worked? And they did! They ran right up to where they thought a landmine was buried and they scratched on the ground. When the men with the metal detector came and checked, there really were landmines or something else like an old bullet.
We have watched CMAC, APOPO and these rats make their way up into all the fields around us and they work very fast. In our fields they found six landmines in total, one was where I have worked many times. I am so sorry that I put my own daughter at risk, I can’t forgive myself. But now we can continue to work without fear. At least that is some comfort."
APOPO Committed to Saving Lives
APOPO’s mine detection rats are an effective technology that is proven to speed up mine action when integrated into existing methods. With a spirit of partnership, APOPO calls on other operators to come and discuss how we can integrate with their technology and methodology.
Together, we can rid some of the world’s most affected countries of landmines.
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From APOPO’s humble beginnings to our present day status as a global organization, APOPO is proud to celebrate 20 years of detecting two of the deadliest threats on the planet: landmines and tuberculosis.
The HeroRATs have helped clear over 106,000 landmines, identified over 12,000 TB-Positive patients who were missed by their clinics, and prevented almost 90,000 potential infections of tuberculosis – the world’s biggest infectious disease killer.
Where it all began
20 years ago Bart Weetjens, a product design ex-student from Antwerp University in Belgium, called his friend Christophe Cox and Mic Billet to tell them about an idea he’d had about training rats to find landmines, freeing nearby communities from terror and hardship. The project was presented to the Belgian Government who provided a feasibility grant in November 1997 and the APOPO project was born. APOPO and the HeroRATs have since been saving lives all over the world.
Harnessing the highly attuned sense of smell in the African giant pouched rat, APOPO has spent the last two decades training these affectionate rodents in detecting two of the deadliest threats on the planet: landmines and tuberculosis. Each gives off its own unique smell, undetectable to humans, something which the rats are able to quickly sniff out.
“This is a case where mother nature has built a detection system that, coupled with modern technology, can save lives in places where cost-effective and efficient tools aren’t readily accessible,”says Bart Weetjens, founder of APOPO. “There’s a powerful and life-saving alert system in the little noses of these rats. Even after 20 years of working with them, I’m still in awe of what they can do.”
Twenty years later, APOPO has now faced the landmine issue in seven countries, including Cambodia, Angola and, notably, Mozambique, where it played a key role in the country achieving ‘mine-free’ status in 2015.
What Next?
APOPO is now looking at opportunities to eliminate landmines in former FARC territories in Colombia, where minimal-metal mines aren’t easily detected by metal detectors, and in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park in Zimbabwe, where APOPO expects to soon begin work detecting mines along important migration routes for elephants, buffalo, lions and other protected wildlife. In addition, APOPO’s TB-detection programs are expanding in Tanzania and Mozambique and will soon be operational in Ethiopia. APOPO is also exploring using rats for search and rescue operations, particularly in collapsed buildings, and even in sniffing out brain disease.
The Next 20 Years
Twenty years after the Ottawa landmine treaty was signed, there is still work to be done. To this day, 58 countries are still plagued by as many as 110 million landmines buried in the ground. However, global financial support for mine clearance is declining, necessitating a faster way to find the landmines. APOPO’s goal is to become the go-to resource in accelerating the pace of landmine clearance as the world races to accomplish the Ottawa Treaty target of eliminating all landmines by 2025. In order to do this, APOPO’s HeroRATs could be the key to speeding up the decades long process.
Saving Lives Thanks to YOU
Thank you to our amazing donors. Whether you have been with us since the beginning, or are new to our community, we are proud to call you our supporter.
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We are proud to celebrate the 1st anniversary of APOPO’s TB Detection Facility in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar Es Salaam
Since 2017, APOPO offers fast innovative TB diagnostics with the help of African giant pouched rats, nicknamed HeroRATs. The rats can check 100 samples in around 20 minutes. This would take a lab technician up to four days. Across sites, APOPO HeroRATs have helped increase clinic detection rates by 40%.
In the past, APOPO transferred samples collected from collaborating clinics in Dar es Salaam to Morogoro. Due to the distance from Dar es Salaam, however, patients often dropped out of the system before the APOPO results could be delivered, and missed out on life saving TB treatment. With the new facility in the city, APOPO strived for same day testing of the samples and delivery of results within 24 hours so patients get them when they return to clinic for their standard results. A similar model has been previously implemented in Maputo, Mozambique.
HeroRATs Success Doubled
Our experience over the first year is striking: The number of collaborating clinics has increased from 24 to 41 and the monthly sample volume in Dar es Salaam has more than doubled to over 4,500 samples evaluated by the HeroRATs in October 2017. 24-hour result turnaround was achieved whenever samples could be made available by the clinics for collection. Most importantly, in the past months, more than 80% or 90% of the additional patients were successfully linked to care (compared to 70% in the previous year), receiving appropriate anti-TB treatment at the clinic.
This clearly highlights the role of good service delivery in achieving health benefits, and supports the need for holistic approaches linking case detection to care.
HeroRATs Saved My Life
Leila is 13 years old and lives in a small house in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. She suddenly developed a severe headache, high fever and extreme fatigue.
“I was unable to attend school and had to stay at home. The TB test at the hospital showed a negative result. My grandparents were anxious because we did not have a diagnosis.
Then, I was informed that my sputum sample had been retested in Morogoro by APOPO and found to be positive for tuberculosis. We were relieved to hear that my illness could finally be treated!
My grandmother could not believe that rats had detected the disease. The amazing HeroRATs also helped in diagnosing my brother and sister.”
Please continue to support APOPO! More work needs to be done to help children like Leila. Tuberculosis remains the deadliest infectious disease – despite being curable and preventable. The WHO estimates that there were 10.4 million new cases worldwide in 2016, and over 1.7 million deaths, including 0.4 million among people with HIV. An estimated 4.1 million were never diagnosed or reported. A gap we are contributing to close in our sites of operations.
It’s the dawn of a new era for Zimbabwe, following an incredibly peaceful end to the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe. APOPO is proud to support the new Zimbabwe by helping to clear its lethal landmines. These landmines are located in the heart of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (GLTP), the largest conservation area in the world, where not only communities, but also many endangered species such as elephants, lions, wild dogs and many more are affected by the land mines.
The GLTP includes three iconic National Parks (NP) spanning three countries; Kruger NP in South Africa; Limpopo NP in Mozambique; Gonarezhou NP in Zimbabwe. APOPO’s minefield is found in the Sengwe Wildlife Corridor, a specifically designated area aimed at allowing free movement of wildlife between Kruger NP and Gonarezhou NP. The minefield runs for 37km with one of the highest landmine densities in the world (about 5,500 mines per km), causing a serious threat to already endangered wildlife and communities living in the area.
HeroRATs Helping Elephants
Gonarezhou NP boasts a population of over 11,000 African elephants, one of the largest in Africa. Kruger NP also has a similar sized population. Given the general continental decline of the African elephant, it is paramount for the long-term wellbeing of the species that these two healthy populations have safe access to interaction.
HeroRATs Re-Building Lives
The landmines also scare away safari operators and lucrative, conservation-focused ecotourism. Kruger NP receives a massive influx of tourists (over 1,600,000 a year), which could potentially travel up the Sengwe Corridor and into Gonarezhou without requiring a visa or leaving the conservation area. Currently Gonarezhou receives virtually no international tourists. If even a small fraction of the Kruger tourists made it to Gonarezhou NP, the economic implications for Zimbabwe would be significant
APOPO feels privileged to be here during this historic transition and wishes to play a role in the creation of a safer and more prosperous Zimbabwe. We are currently fundraising to be able to commence our demining operation in the Sengwe Wildlife Corridor early next year.
Please help us to reach our goal!
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For the first time since the end of the civil war, the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAA) recorded no casualties in Cambodia for a whole month. The first half of this year has also shown a drop in 40% of deaths and injuries from old landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) compared to the same period last year.
It is unheard of that since CMAA began recording incidents in 1979, that there has been a whole month free from casualties. This is a very encouraging sign and APOPO and partner CMAC are thrilled that the impact of our work in Cambodia becomes evident in ways like this.
“Seeing the rats finding the landmines so quickly is amazing! We work on zones the size of a tennis court, and they take about 30 minutes to check it. This could take me up to four days with a metal detector because of all the false alarms from scrap metal, which of course we have to check in case they are actually landmines." says Sophea, one of the APOPO Rat handlers.
HeroRATs Saving Lives
Used as a unique add-on to conventional detection methods, APOPOs Mine Detection Rats are proven to significantly speed up conventional landmine detection methods and return safe land to vulnerable communities as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
This life-saving work must continue
Cambodia is one of the most landmine-affected countries in the world, the result of 3 decades of conflict which persisted until the late 1990’s. The impact of these weapons is long lasting and devastating. Landmines keep people poor and their presence stands in the way of socio-economic growth for communities living in contaminated environments. Mines prevent access to land for agriculture, resettlement and other infrastructure developments such as roads, schools and water catchment ponds.
Removing mines is therefore essential for the lives and livelihoods of the Cambodian population.
You’re Saving Lives
Your donation has led to this amazing accomplishment and we are incredibly appreciative. Of course, there is a lot more work to be done to rid the country of landmines completely, but together with our HeroRATs and your support, we will get there faster!
Thank you.
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