Our de-miners give up a hard-earned day of rest in order to clear UXO from the garden where a young girl died.
Our de-miners had already worked for 28 days without a break but they volunteered to give up their first vacation day in a month and clear the coffee garden of UXO.
We agonized over the plight of a family who recently lost their daughter in an accident with Vietnam-era ordnance. Since the girls’ death last autumn her family has been afraid to return to the garden where the accident occurred. While we badly wanted to clear their land, we feared that by adding an unscheduled parcel to our work list we might have to drop another family’s land. Sadly, any family displaced would continue, for at least another year, to be in harm’s way and could suffer a tragedy themselves.
The fellows on our team suggested a solution. They proposed giving up a day of their hard-earned break and using that day to begin clearing the family’s land. That single day isn’t sufficient time for the team to clear the entire garden of UXO but it does constitute a considerable start; we are determined to clear the entire area over the next week without displacing another family.
The following video is my send off to the team on the day they began work on the garden.
Our De-miners Put The Needs Of Others First