Support for Land Mine Survivors

Raising Our Voices Supports Land Mine Survivors

by Jill Weinlein

What began as a warm and sunny day at the edge of hilly Golan Heights became a life-threatening nightmare for three young men. In 1984 while hiking in Israel with two American friends in their twenties, Jerry White suddenly collapsed to the ground screaming "My leg, my leg". Little did he realize he stepped on an explosive landmine. As White lay on the ground in excruciating pain, his friends yelled to him not to move. Losing blood rapidly, they noticed his right foot was blown apart, his hiking boot missing, and bones were protruding from his left leg. The three young men had no warning that they were entering a minefield with explosives waiting to cause greater damage.

Painstakingly, they managed to lift him up and transport him to the nearest hospital. After undergoing four surgeries (gangrene developed after one surgery) and rehabilitation at Hashomer Hospital near Tel Aviv, he finally returned home to the United States.

"During my recovery and rehabilitation, it was difficult to see where I would fit in the world I had known" said White, now Director of Landmine Survivors Network. He recalls a landmine survivor visiting him in the hospital offering advice: "You have a choice: stay a victim or be a survivor." Pointing to his leg, the visitor told him his problem was not down there, but in his head and in his heart. White realized at that moment that life isn't over after losing a leg, and chose to survive.

In 1995, White worked on a landmine ban movement. In 1997 with co-founder, Ken Rutherford, he incorporated the Landmine Survivors Network as a non-profit organization, dedicated to empowering landmine victims to reclaim their lives through programs in health, economic opportunities and human rights for all people with disabilities. This dynamic organization has attracted such names as Princess Diana, Queen Noor and Sir Paul McCarthy to their worthy mission. Sir Paul McCartney and Lady Heather Mills presented Jerry White and Ken Rutherford with the Adopt-A-Mine field Humanitarian Award for their leadership in global landmine movement.

Landmine Survivors Network now operates peer support groups in six, heavily-mined countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Jordan, and Mozambique, to promote health, eradicate poverty and secure human rights for all disabled people. Their goal is to work with other partners to remove all mines in Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Angola and Iraq.

Vietnam is littered with over three million landmines left from the Vietnam War. About 2,000 people are injured each year. Most victims have limited medical assistance. In Afghanistan landmines buried over 23 years of civil wars and Soviet occupation, kill or maim up to150 to 300 people a month.

Over 150 countries have signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty prohibiting the use, manufacture, stockpiling or transfer of anti-personnel mines. The United States and Cuba are the only countries that have yet to ban landmines or sign the Treaty.

Eighty percent of landmine victims are civilian. Twenty-five percent are innocent children who pick up a shiny object in a field, only to lose a limb. Most landmine survivors and their families live on $1 per day. A growing child needs an artificial limb every six to twelve months. An adult needs a new prosthesis every three to five years.

Jerry White's mission is to educate the public to hear the voices of these innocent victims, through a program called Raising Our Voices. Last spring Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing and other West Wing cast members joined White in reaching out to the community at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, with the actors performing readings from the accounts of land mine survivors. One account was from Juan Antonia Carbajal, living in El Salvador. During the country's civil war, he heard a man who had stepped on a mine, screaming for help. No one ran to his aid because the man was in a dangerous location, but Carbajal couldn't walk away. As he lifted the man up another landmine exploded. The injured man died immediately and Carbajal lost both legs.

Another victim was Seleshi Beyene, living in Ethiopia. He was 12-years old when he found a land mine by the riverbanks. Not knowing what it was, he reached out and it blew up in his hands. He lost both hands and an eye. Once home from a three-month hospital stay, he lost the support of his family too. His father was angry that he now had a damaged son. His family abandoned him and he was left on his own.

Raising Our Voices is a campaign to provide the training and tools to equip survivors from mine-affected countries. Without these tools, victims feel hopeless. Worldwide, only 10% of landmine survivors have access to health care and rehabilitation. Many face prejudice and rejection daily. Landmine Survivors are helping these victims of injustice change how they see themselves. The Network reaches out to victims with peer support, links to health care, hospital visits, and education. The Landmine Survivors Network makes a difference by giving victims hope and a reason to live.

For more information log on to: www.landminesurvivors.org or call 202-464-0007.