Activities provide youngsters with safe alternatives to playing in explosive-riddled countryside
BINT JBEIL/MAARAKE: "Have any of you seen a cluster bomb in your houses used as a decoration?" a counselor with UNICEF Mine Risk Education program asks class of third- and fourth-graders at Al-Ahlia School in the Southern village of Maarake near Tyre. Several hands shoot up - a testament to the need for education on the issue following the summer 2006 war with Israel. Working with government ministries and several local and international NGOs, the UNICEF programs, conducted on a weekly basis, focus on restoring normalcy and promoting physical and psychological health for children and their families.
With the citrus harvest coming up, bringing families throughout rural Lebanon to the fields, the need for mine risk education is particularly acute.
Unexploded ordnance (UXO), including land mines from past conflicts and cluster munitions from the summer war, poses one of the most serious threats to children and their families in the South. Since the August 14 cease-fire, 29 people in the area have been killed by cluster bombs and 204 have been wounded, including 70 under the age of 18, according to UN statistics. The numbers continue to rise.
"A few months ago my 15-year-old cousin picked up a cluster bomb and was playing with it," said Sara Akika, a 13-year-old resident of Bint Jbeil. "He didn't know what it was, he was ignorant. It exploded right there in his hand."
Her cousin sustained severe injuries, but luckily he did not lose his hand.
Although UXO clearance teams have made much progress, the work is painstaking, and officials say it will take up to another year to remove the physical threat. Until then, education and awareness continue to be critical in protecting children and youth from the "ticking bomb" legacy of the war.
"I didn't die in the war but maybe now I will step on a cluster bomb and die. This is no life, I am not free," says Fatme Soulaman, 18, a student at the Khalil Jourdani Schoo in Maarake.
Working in coordination with Lebanon's National De-mining Office, the Lebanese Army and several UN organizations and NGOs, UNICEF heads an information campaign aimed at more than 1 million people in the areas hardest-hit by UXOs, including South Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut. The mass communications component of the Mine Risk Education/UXO campaign focuses on key awareness messages describing what UXOs look like and what to do if it they are sighted: Don't approach, don't touch, and report to the authorities.
Awareness vehicles include posters, flyers, banners, television spots, radio messages and, creatively, water bottles.
UNICEF and Norwegian People's Aid funded the instruction of over 200 program trainers. In turn, the trainers now lead sessions in 150 villages targeting parents, agricultural workers, farmers, children and teachers.
"We are facing a second war now with the cluster bombs so these classes are critical," said Amena Ajami, a teacher at Al-Ahlia School. "They are saving the lives of our children, they need to be continued."
These school-based sessions include activities specifically tailored to different age groups, using coloring books, theater skits, photography exhibits and more. There is even a board game, a play on the classic snakes and ladders" with one difference: The villainous snakes are cluster bombs.
Despite their unconventional tactics, the educational programs have a difficult time reaching adolescents. Boys aged 13-18 face a unique challenge, trainers say: adolescent bravado. This age group has suffered almost a quarter of the total civilian injuries since the cease-fire.
Source : The Daily Star