Meet Mines Action Canada’s Young Professionals

MAC’s Young Professionals. Photo: MAC

Dustin Ciufo, Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines (NCBL)

The opportunity to deepen my awareness of and contribute toward the ICBL-CMC is a remarkable privilege that I feel sincerely blessed to be undertaking as a member of the 2011 YPIMAP. The landmine and cluster munition issues are pressing humanitarian matters that can be resolved in our lifetime. Through collaboratively advocating against their use, writing funding proposals to support survivors and mobilizing youth for mine action outreach activities, I am truly honoured to be one of a multitude of voices calling on the Nepalese Government to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Jennifer Matthews, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF-RENEW)

My YP placement has brought me to Dong Ha, Vietnam where I've been working with the Project RENEW team for the past two and a half months. I've had a rather multifaceted role at RENEW which has been really great! I've been working closely with the Public Relations team as the grand opening of the Quang Tri Mine Action Visitor Center is quickly approaching. I've been doing some promotional work for the Visitor Center, assisting the team with web-design, brochure development, press advisories, a whole range of tasks! It's really been a great learning experience for me. I had little knowledge of issues surrounding cluster bombs, landmines and other unexploded ordnance before my time with MAC, and the amount I've absorbed in the last 3 months almost shocks me! I'm very excited to see how the next two and half months will unfold!

Tyler Morden, Uganda Landmine Survivors’ Association (ULSA)

Greetings from Uganda! My main responsibilities include designing victim assistance and advocacy projects, drafting funding proposals, and developing advocacy materials through various forms of social media. I will also be creating a manual for recruiting and training youth campaigners and will be involved in facilitating some of these training workshops. I applied for the YPIMAP position because the landmine issue has been an interest of mine for quite some time. I volunteered with the Manitoba Campaign to Ban Landmines and have spent time seeing firsthand the destruction caused by landmines while in post-conflict regions. I have had a very positive experience with ULSA so far. There have been some difficult times with the recent riots; however the ULSA team has been incredibly supportive. They are approachable, professional, respectful, and very dedicated to the movement, and I am learning new things from them each day.

Candice Botha, Zambia Foundation for Landmine Survivors (ZAFLAS)

Muli shani! I am thrilled to have finally broken into the international humanitarian sector! I am working with organizations facilitating project planning, writing funding proposals and organizing a safe communities conference in Zambia. At a nshima shack in a Lusaka compound, I saw my dreams materialize. I was facilitating a Woman’s Planning Meeting to strategize how to make organizations more inclusive of women and people with disabilities. After getting past the limitless topic of cultural differences it seemed that attitudes about women and their roles in society were the least of their barriers.”

Adrian Gregorich, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)

I am currently working in Siem Reap, Cambodia through a placement with the Jesuit Service. I work as a researcher, and my main task is to complete a booklet on the various NGOs around the country that provide services to disabled people, but my work includes office administration and event coordination as well. I was drawn to apply to the YPIMAP position based on my experiences backpacking in South East Asia back in 2005. While visiting Siem Reap, we were warned not to veer off the beaten path around town, and sure enough, on the edges of town were skulland- crossbones warning signs: DANGER MINES. Seeing small amputee children begging in the streets for money and food, I told myself that I had to find a way to contribute to the campaign to ban land mines.

Rachel Dempsey, Colombian Campaign Against Landmines (CCCM)

I am working in Medellin, Colombia with the Colombian Campaign Against Landmines as a Mine Action Support Officer. I returned to school in 2003 to pursue a career in international humanitarianism. I wanted to work with MAC because I think the ICBL is a great place to learn - such an incredible success story and an example for other humanitarian initiatives. One of the important things I have learned about here is urgency. It´s one thing to know statistics, and another to constantly hear about new accident victims, and meet survivors and see that with every accident, an individual, a family, and a community have been irrevocably changed. And as the number of phone calls add up, the urgency is so obvious, that you can´t understand why you didn´t feel it before

Ross Duncan, Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines (CCCM)

I’m currently working as a Mine Action Program Support Officer with the Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas. With the campaign, I am involved in campaigning and advocating so that current public policy reforms contain the voices of civil society and landmine victims through their formulation and implementation. I applied for the YP program at MAC as I have always had the desire to work with a civil society organisation in a conflict setting. Not once did I ever imagine that I would have learnt as much as I have whilst in Colombia. I have learnt and now appreciate a wealth of information on coca eradication, current legal reforms in health, victims and land restitution and fiscal sustainability, as well as being able to work in another language. I am proud to say that I am involved against landmines and cluster munitions.

Tamar Zamir, Tajikistan Campaign to Ban Land Mines (TCBL)

I am working in Dushanbe, supporting the Tajik campaign with project proposal writing, organizing and facilitating events, field visits, translating, conducting research and advocacy, as well as generating support for the Mine Ban Treaty implementation and accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Working as an intern with Mines Action Canada is a perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in the Mine Action Family. It gives you the right tools and opportunities to become an expert in the fi eld of Mine Action. It was also an opportunity for me to contribute to a cause that so long concerned me“

Story from the field

NCBL staff member Dinesh Subedi recording information from conflict affected girls who are to receive scholarships from
NCBL. Photo: NCBL

Katie Pitts, Mines Action Canada (MAC)/Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines (NCBL).

On 14 May 2011, Katie Pitts and Dustin Ciufo, Young Professional interns at MAC/NCBL, left the city environment of Kathmandu, Nepal, to visit rural communities that were heavily affected by Nepal’s internal conflict between 1996 and 2006. The primary purpose of the trip was to deliver school scholarships and supplies to girls in six communities in southern Nepal whose education is being supported by NCBL and its partner organization, Women Development Society (WODES). The systematic devaluation of girls in many Nepalese communities translates into girls missing out on formal education when difficult financial times hit a family. NCBL/WODES hopes to counteract this trend by providing scholarships to girls in need, specifi cally girls affected by Nepal’s 10-year confl ict, some of whom were injured by landmines or improvised explosive devices.

NCBL planned programs in three of the communities,(Gohari, Gulariya and Madhi), to deliver the scholarships and to address over 90 students and their families about the importance of educating girls. They also spoke with families one-on-one to determine the impact that the scholarships would have both on children and their families. The realities of carrying out activities in a country still undergoing a peace process became apparent when a bandh (general strike) stalled NCBL activities for a day. This form of political protest proves to be detrimental to the Nepali economy, and serves as reminder of the confl ict and the continued unrest that accompanies the peace process. The delivery of scholarship fees and school supplies for 54 girls has now been delayed as a result of the bandh, and the program will have to be rescheduled for a later date.

Despite this, scholarship fees and school supplies were delivered to over 40 girls from fi ve districts, and arrangements were made to return at a later date to deliver the remaining 54 scholarship fees from the program postponed by the bandh. While the peace processin Nepal continues, this opportunity to speak with children and their parents highlights the hope that Nepali youth have for their future, and the importance of education as a tool in the development of a peaceful and productive future generation.