Removing mines to make families safe in Kosovo

I want to thank all of our generous donors for supporting our mine clearance program in Kosovo. Our deminers have been working hard clearing landmines to keep Kosovans safe. In fact, this past July 2019 our deminers in Kosovo cleared more land than any previous month! This is thanks to your support.

Your gift helps us clear landmines from communities like Nerodime – a beautiful area with picturesque forests, but with land that has not been fully utilized since the war. A community where families aren’t safe to let their children run and play.

Town administrator Nazmi Balija told HALO about how the community has struggled as a result of the aftermath of war: “Once the war ended, we thought that was it. We didn’t know that almost 20 years later we would still be haunted by the war. It’s even worse now. Living in fear during peace is much worse than living in fear during war. At least during war, that’s the norm.”

Two thirds of former community members have moved away as a result.  Nazmi is hopeful that once the land is cleared families who left will return to their homes and put the land back to productive use.

Your support saves lives. With each minefield cleared, families are able to move beyond conflict and focus on rebuilding their lives and communities without fear. Thank you for making our work possible. 

June 10, 2019 marks the 20^th anniversary of the end of conflict in Kosovo. Even though 20 years have gone by, landmines, cluster munitions, and other items of unexploded ordnance still threaten the lives and livelihoods of families and communities in Kosovo.

Tahire and Basri, parents of six in Kosovo, spoke to us about the fear they have each weekday when four of their children walk from their home, through woodland contaminated with cluster munitions, to reach their school.

"It is not right that children who were not even alive during the conflict are still suffering the traumas of war.” – Tahire

The family returned to their home on the outskirts of Komogllave village in western Kosovo soon after the conflict ended. They quickly realized that their life was not back to normal when they started discovering cluster bombs in the woods around their house. Then, less than a year later, their neighbor lost an arm in a cluster munition accident in the forest. The presence of cluster munitions has caused fear and anxiety for the family but also has prevented them from using the land and earning money.

Basri spoke to us about what HALO’s work means to his family and his community - "Everybody in the village benefits if the land gets cleared. People will either use the area for firewood, grazing or cultivating. But for me, of course, the greatest part is that my children will finally feel safe when they walk to school."

Once destroyed, a landmine or cluster munition is gone forever. Thanks to the support of donors like you, we can help families like this live in safety, without fear. Every gift towards mine clearance in Kosovo will be matched by an anonymous donor, doubling your impact.