Opening Ceremony of the 4MSP: Survivors Input

(Tuesday 17 September 2002 Geneva, Switzerland) Landmine survivors Felicidade Maria de Jesus of Angola and Marick Ngueradjim of Chad, participating in Raising the Voices training project spoke about their experiences and the hopes of landmine survivors worldwide from this important meeting and process.

Felicidade (in Portuguese)

For 2 days my mother was busy packing. She wrapped the cooking utensils in blankets. My father went in and out of the house all day, speaking in hushed tones to my mother. He looked so worried. He forgot to play our game. “Daddy, throw me in the air and catch me!” I said.

“Not now!” he said.

I cried to my grandmother about the injustice of it all. She just rocked me back and forth until I fell asleep.

I woke up to the pow pow pow of gunfire. Grandma was carrying me out of the house. Mom and Dad followed but were loaded down with bundles. I started to fret and squirm. “Where are we going?” I asked. My grandmother shushed me and held me tighter and kept walking. “I want to get down. I want to walk myself!” I shouted.

But grandma kept walking. We were going faster than Mom and Dad who were already falling behind because of how much they had to carry. She told me that we were going to stay at my uncle’s house for a while because the fighting had come to our village. She asked, “Don’t I want to see my uncle?”

Before I could answer a deafening explosion threw me in the air!

That is the last thing I remember of my grandmother. She died instantly from the landmine explosion. My leg was blown off. I was two years old. When I was 4 years old, my uncle made me a special boot for my stump so I could walk. But it was heavy and it hurt. I was eight years old before I went to a hospital in the capital city to get a prosthesis. The capital city was far from our village so I lived in that hospital. I was the only little girl. They rest of the people in the hospital were soldiers. I missed my mother and father very much.

Marick (in French)

Najmuddin is a landmine survivor from Afghanistan. He had just graduated high school. He was helping transport sand for his family to build a house when the truck he was driving ran over a landmine. For one week, he remained unconscious in the hospital. When he awoke, doctors told Najmuddin that he had lost both legs. He immediately slipped back into unconsciousness again.

Najmuddin remained in the hospital for one year. After his wounds healed, he went home – without prostheses. He remained in bed for 5 years. He never left his house. Finally, he heard that ICRC had opened a prosthetics clinic in Kabul and Najmuddin went there. He received prostheses and physiotherapy. Najmuddin says, “To be five years at home without legs was extremely depressing. But to be at home without a job was really really difficult – more difficult than anything”.

After getting physiotherapy, Najmuddin expressed an interest in becoming a physiotherapist. The ICRC clinic took him on as a trainee. Now he heads the ICRC orthopedic center in Kabul.

Felicidade

A 32 year old woman in Thailand was tending to her vegetables when she stepped on a mine. Her husband left her after her leg was amputated. She was left alone to care for her 2 daughters. A government fund loaned her the money to start raising pigs and chickens and paid the school fees for her children to go to school. She is still working through the double trauma of losing her leg and losing her husband, but she is taking care of her family and able to decide for herself what are her next steps.

Marick

On June 15, 1984, three friends were traveling to find work when one stepped on a mine. Two of the friends died instantly. The third, Porfirio was badly injured and lost his right leg above the knee.

Although the economic situation in Nicaragua makes it difficult for many to make a living, people with disabilities find it especially hard. Much of their difficulties are imposed by social attitudes as opposed to any physical limitation. “There are many jobs one can do with only one leg” claims Porfirio. “yet no one will hire me because of my disability”.

Felicidade

From the second week of being hospitalized, I crawled everywhere I needed to go. Being independent is what I really craved.

Marick

Support from my family and friends contributed greatly to my recovery. I don’t think I could have done it without them.

Felicidade

My life has many more positive than negative things. I am thankful that I am here for my children. I appreciate that I am alive.

Marick

I was spared my upper limbs, my sight and I have a sound mind. I can do many things.

Marick and Felicidade together
I have A NEW LIFE.

Felicidade

This is the first time Raising the Voices survivors have sat with the official delegations from their countries. We welcome the symbolism of this gesture. It says that States Parties and landmine survivors share the same goal - that landmine victims all over the globe receive the “care and rehabilitation and social and economic reintegration” that is their right to receive.

Raising the Voices helps landmine survivors become effective advocates for their own reintegration into society. We bring the knowledge and skills acquired in Geneva back to our communities and country contexts. Working with you and the organizations that care about landmine survivors and other people with disabilities, we have made some progress. In some places landmine survivors have access to good medical care, affordable prosthetics services, vocational training, peer support. And in some places laws and policies have been changed to protect OUR rights. But there is much to be done. In most countries, services are severely inadequate. And overall funding for victim assistance programs, never more than a small percentage of overall mine action funding to begin with, is decreasing even more.

It has been 5 years since The Mine Ban Treaty was negotiated. But what has changed for the landmine survivors of the world? Information is better, understanding of our needs is better – yet resources are decreasing and still every year 15,000 - 20,000 more survivors are created, while the hundreds of thousands of survivors from previous decades keep waiting.

Yet—143 countries have signed the Mine Ban Treaty. We are named in that Treaty -- the first arms Treaty to include a provision for the victims of the weapon in question. The Mine Ban Treaty is applauded as a model for a more humanitarian future.

So please. Keep your promises. Keep your promises to us.

Thank you.