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Kosovo Survey Team 2003/4 The MAT Kosovo Survey team continues its work with a 100% Kosovar team. The team began work in July 2003 and have been continually funded from this time until now, with the current contract running through until December 31st 2004. The majority of the team are ex Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) senior local supervisors, which includes a former de-miner who was injured during the NPA project. This staff member will be the Community Liaison/MRE Officer. The team comprises of nine national staff and their duties will be as follows: Conduct levels 1 to 4 surveys to discredit or verify the presence of UXO and dangerous areas including post operation MRE to the local communities. If verified to contain UXO, they will be capable of dealing with single items of UXO and mark and record dangerous areas containing multiple items of UXO. Be able to conduct sampling of areas previously worked on. Conduct area reduction tasks. Conduct other EOD related tasks assigned to them by the OKPCC EOD Management Section. Being awarded this project is a major step forward for MAT. In the winter of 2003/4 the ITF funded a three month project for the MAT Kosovo Survey team to work as Winter cover QRT for the whole of Kosovo. Due to the mild winter the team were busy throughout January, February and March. In April 2004 the MAT Kosovo Survey team won the contract to supply Mines Action Survey through until the 31st December 2004. This funding coming from the OKPCC EOD MS. The project is aimed at building a national capacity, in line with MAT's philosophy. For further information please contact Mr Ben Remfrey:     Democratic Republic of Congo Democratic Republic of Congo MAT is running an MRE project in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The project is working with Angolan refugee's who are soon to be repatriated to the north of Angola. Currently these refugee's are in camps along the border of the two countries. The project is being run in three phases, the first phase (one month) is sponsored by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the second two phases (two-months) by the United Nations High Commission for Refugee's (UNHCR). The aim of this emergency project is to train staff from the IRC and UNHCR to educate the refugee's and assist them in their return. More information will be available on this project soon. MAT has recently launched a new project which aims at educating Angolan refugees from southern DRC. This project started in May 2004 and is due to run for two months. MAT is also awaiting funding to start an MRE project in DRC funded by UNICEF. For further information please contact Mr Ben Remfrey:     Uganda In April 2004 MAT sent a deployment to Uganda to start the process of developing the local Ugandan NGO 'Anti Mines Network for Rwenzori' (AMNET-R). The team quickly set up an office in the west of Uganda in the town of Kasese and set to work developing the local NGO partner AMNET-R. In late April four trucks and one car arrived in Kasese donated by Guernsey Overseas Aid, these vehicles are to support a victim/survivor assistance project. This is to be done by transporting landmine and UXO survivors produce to markets where they obtain a better price for their goods. In May 2004 Comic Relief made a grant to MAT/AMNET-R to develop the Mines Risk Education project in the region, which will centre on the communities most at risk, facilitate employment of training staff and also facilitate the procurement of equipment for the project. Further donors are currently being approached to support this vital project long-term. For further information please contact Mr Ben Remfrey:     Eritrea Project :: CLOSED Please note: Due to circumstances outside our control this we regret to announce this project had to be closed in September 2002. The MAT deployed a recce team to Eritrea in February 2001 with the intention of beginning an MRE programme concentrating on the displaced population resulting from the border conflict with Ethiopia. This border conflict was fought over disputed territory along the common border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. The United Nations Mines Action Service (UNMAS) granted funding for a proposal in October 2001. The project is a community based one, which educates Internally Displaced Persons (IDP's) prior to them returning to their homelands. Inevitably many people have already returned to their homes. The project also educates those when they have returned to 'contaminated' land to help them live with the threat in relative safety while treating it as their own problem by reporting and passing back information to the UNMEEMACC. MAT trains Community Volunteers (CV's) for this purpose in each community designated a 'high-risk'. The MAT Eritrea project is multi-faceted and includes: Community Volunteers project Child-to-child Direct presentations NGO Safety training Data gathering Training of MRE trainers For further information please contact Mr Ben Remfrey:     Sudan In May and June of 2002 MAT sent a recce team to the Sudan and Kenya to meet the United Nations representative for mines action. This was to establish if there was a possibility of MAT beginning a programme in both the north and south of the Sudan. The MAT team also had several meetings with representatives form an NGO in the south as well as representatives form the Sudanese Campaign to Ban Landmines. Due to the initial success of this visit another visit took place in Khartoum by Mr Andrew Moore, MAT Africa Representative in late June. Andrew 's visit involved several meetings with NGO's, the Government of Sudan and Consulate/Embassy staff. He also went on a field recce of the Kassala district of eastern Sudan with the senior UN Mines Action technical advisor. MAT's aim in the Sudan is to build local capacity, developing existing local MA NGO's over a three-year period, so that by the end the NGO's will be self-reliant. For more information please contact Mr Ben Remfrey:     Sri Lanka The MAT/CTF Sri Lanka project is now operational after the training phase was completed. Bekim Shala, MAT training Officer, is currently overseeing the 5 teams who are now deployed in the field conducting Mines Risk Education (MRE) with communities most at risk from the Landmines and Unexploded Ordnance left after the countries long conflict. The districts where MAT/CTF are operating are: Mannar, Puttalam, Vavuniya, Anuradhapura & Trincomalee. Many of the recipients of the MAT/CTF MRE project are Internally Displaced People (IDP), who are looking, or have already, returned to their homes. The MAT and CTF are currently looking to expand the project to support the MRE with Quick Response Teams (QRT) who will conduct Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), which will effectively, in time, return the land to the communities for agriculture. A main component of the MAT/CTF MRE project is data gathering from each community through a 'community volunteer' initiative, aimed at 'empowering' village heads to help their communtiy by safely collecting information on suspected dangerous areas and items. The cooperation between MAT & CTF is vital toward our eventual, which is to capacity building an NGO such as CTF to become a national Mines Action asset. For further information please contact Mr Ben Remfrey:     Kosovo Project MAT's first project started in Western Kosovo in 1999 and is still currently running under the control of national staff. The programme sat on the following elements: National Chosen UNMACC Senior Partner for Mine Awareness in Western Kosovo. Dangerous Area Surveys in support of UN Data Base (IMSMA) and Landmine Incident Investigation. The chosen UNMACC trainers for de-mining companies seeking internal mine awareness assets. Districts Mine Awareness Presentations for all NGOs in Western Kosovo Liaison and coordination between de-mining companies and local communities. Local capacity building through the training of local emergency services in map reading, voice procedure and first aid. Village Child to Child project. 500 children per group leader trained. Mine Awareness Education through MAT sponsored centres for women. Community Based Mines Awareness Education in villages Mine Awareness Education using sporting activities as a platform for youths. Survivor visits and assistance including liaison with Red Cross Representatives. For more information please contact Mr Ben Remfrey:

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