Beware of landmines, stay away from dangerous places, and don’t ever touch unusual objects. Landmines are often placed in unorthodox places – in civilian’s homes, landmines have been found in refrigerators, and even in canned food. This is, of course, in addition to the more conventional places landmines have been found – throughout fields and across roads, in rural areas as well as urban ones.
The lack of knowledge on the part of civilians is a major issue. How to recognize landmines, how they tend to be placed, and how to avoid them are all essential parts of mine risk awareness. In addition, things like basic first aid and learning to cope with disabilities serve to improve safety and quality of life. Without this knowledge, incidents involving landmines are both more frequent and more lethal.
One of the goals of Project Masam is to spread mine risk awareness. In addition to clearing Yemen of the vast number of landmines that have been placed there, an awareness campaign directed at civilians would serve to improve their safety by virtue of providing them with the knowledge they need to safely navigate the myriad risks landmines pose.
