One deadly step

An indiscriminate weapon | Cluster munitions | What is World Vision doing? |
What you can do

Chem's story

Chem Phorn, a 40-year-old father, was drafted to carry goods for the Cambodian army. He regularly walked barefoot along dirt tracks in the countryside, carrying rations of fish and pork. One day, he was carrying a heavy load and he paused to shift the weight from one shoulder to the other.

“I stepped off the trail onto dry, dead grass. There was a loud explosion and excruciating pain shot up my leg and I fell unconscious,” Chem Phorn remembers. It was seven hours before he was found and taken to the hospital.

An indiscriminate weapon

Father and son landmine survivors

With a child’s curiosity, a small girl picked up an unusual object lying on the ground near her village in Angola. Within seconds, she learned a cruel lesson. What she had picked up was a “butterfly” mine, which exploded at once. It cost her a hand.

Typically planted a few inches below the surface of the ground, landmines are weapons that explode when disturbed or when physical pressure is placed upon them. Although millions of mines have been removed, landmines still injure or kill about 15,000 to 20,000 people every year. Thousands of landmines remain buried in former conflict areas.

An estimated 80 percent of landmine victims are civilians; one-third of these are children.

Landmines cannot discriminate between adult and child, soldier and civilian.

More questions about the use of landmines? See our Q&A page.

Back to top

Cluster munitions

While dropped from the air, cluster munitions, like landmines, are not able to differentiate between civilians and combatants or children and adults. Research by humanitarian organizations in Southeast Asia has revealed that 60 percent of casualties from unexploded cluster munitions are children. Unexploded cluster munitions resemble small metal tennis balls and are often mistaken by children for toys. Even when conflicts end, unexploded cluster "duds" are often left behind, posing a constant threat for years to come.

In the past 15 years, the United States has used cluster bombs in civilian-populated areas of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia. The cluster bombs the United States dropped 40 years ago in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam are still killing people today. Since the last cluster bomb was dropped in Laos in 1973, 12,000 Laotian civilians, many of whom were not born when the bombs were dropped, have been killed or injured by an unexploded cluster bomb.

What is World Vision doing about landmines?

In many parts of the world, World Vision is engaged in removing landmines. Through its mine- awareness education program, World Vision helps children and adults protect themselves from landmines. World Vision also provides assistance to mine victims, who often have lost hands, feet or limbs, helping them to them to become independent and to earn a living.

Back to top

What you can do

• Pray for government leaders who are making a decision on this very important issue and for the innocent victims of landmines and cluster munitions.
• Make a monthly financial pledge to help provide for the needs of children affected by war.