| Good
news for the supporters of MgM |
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The list of things which we are able to afford with
the financial support of our private donors and present here is astonishingly
long although not complete.
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| Armored graders are urgently needed
in Angola right now. This is our new one, coming directly
from... |
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| ...the scrap yard. With the support
of our private donors we turned this "ruin" into
a reasonable priced first class and highly efficient demining
machine. |
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We open the road…
Since the surprising end of the angolan civil war
in 2002 our demining teams are constantly requested.
The most important task is the clearing of mines on all mined roads
to the IDP camps in the former UNITA controlled areas. Heavily armored
machinery is therefore urgently needeed. With the help of of private
donations we wer able to refurbish this grader which we found at
a southafrican scrapyard. Meanwhile the grader is on duty in southern
Angola and helps us to prepare the wartorn infrastructure for a
peace future. Whereever the impressive vehicle appears -carrieing
meanwhile the MgM-Logo by the way- people breathe a sigh of relief.
They know about the succesful demining operations of our teams and
are waiting for the official handover of the roads opened by us.
The big advantage of using graders like this one is the fact that
immediately after the demining operations trucks up to 20 tons can
travel these roads loaded with food and other urgently needed goods.
MgM invented this method some years ago and introduced it to the
world of humanitarian demining.
Together with our manual deminers and our dog teams these used and
refurbished machines do a marvellous job in the highly mine effected
post war scenarios. The only thing which is better than an armored
grader are many armored graders…
(read
more about the use of our armored special machinery)
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| This is Dingo. During a birthday party
the guests collected money for a mine sniffing dog. |
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| Our well trained Dogs are unreplacable
team members for mine detection and the quality control of
cleared areas. |
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So much more than
a party gag.
In place of expensive and useless gifts: money to buy a MgM explosives
sniffer dog. This beautiful idea came into somebody's mind whilst
preparing his birthday party. Because everybody found this an exciting
idea a sum of 2000 Euros had been collected. "Dingo" is
the name of the new MgM four legged team member. Which is currently
under training for his first job.
The highly sensitive nose of our dogs plays a major role in our
demining operations - although there are some limitations caused
by the nature of the animals and climatic conditions.
A serious matter for us, a game for the dogs: the detection of the
typical TNT emissions of a landmine is rewarded by a time off for
a little play. The dogs just love it when their handler invites
them to play around with a ball after they found and indicated a
mine.
Apart from detecting mines it is the important verification of non-mined
areas - the so called Mined Area Reduction - where dogs are of great
help.
We will report about Dingo here in the near future.
Many thanks for the unusual donation!
(read more about the use of dogs in humanitarien mine clearance) |
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| Maintained carefully during many years
in Europe, then put out of duty: for a friction of the price
of a new one we were able to buy this fully functional fire
engine. |
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| The fire engine makes the handling of
esplosives more safe. It serves as a task vehicle for our
medical staff too. The picuture shows the arrival in Windhoek,
Namibia |
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Here comes the fire
brigade
What in Europe is of value only for a handfull of
collectors and museums may in our operations be of an enormous practical
worthiness: a powerfull all terrain 4x4 diesel engined vehicle is
always welcome in our operations in hazardous and distant regions
of the ex-wartorn countries. Besides their use als fire fighting
units several second hand fire engines are used as task vehicle
by our medical staff which is obliged to accompany all our demining
teams, in case of an accident as transporter of an always possible
mine victim. Also its usefulness for water transport purposes during
the dry season must be mentioned.
An african anecdote: when the first at least for Angolan eyes "brandnew"
looking firebrigade came to our central camp in Ondjiva it did not
take long until the chief of the local fire station appeared in
front of our country director Ken O'Connell. Without any hold-up
he explained to the stunned Ken that he came to fetch "his"
new fire engine. It took a longer palaver and the formal confirmation
that the MgM fire engine would help local people and his fire brigade
in case of any emergency fire alarm, too. Only then the chief left
the camp mumbling and without his dream car.
Many thanks to our private donors! |
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| Our central camp in Ondjiva, Angola.
Here our car fleet and our numerous specialized vehicles are
maintained and repaired. |
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| Theory and practice of humantarian mine
clearance are tought in our training center. The training
ground inside the camp offers close-to-reality conditions. |
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| This is how a temporary camp of a MgM
task force looks like. And this is the way our demining teams
live for weeks and months, sometimes years. |
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New
tasks for MgM in Angola
Right after the end of the civil war in 2002 the number of our demining
operations increased massively. The capacties of our central camp
in southern Angola had to grow considerably too. Here our car fleet
and our numerous specialized vehicles are maintained and repaired.
The extensive spare parts logistics are centered here, a training
ground for our dogs and the dector test field is located here, besides
the local administration. In the past the world food program of
the UN stocked their food aid in our camp before we transported
it to the fugitive camps in the mined areas of the Angolan bush.
With the help of our private donors we were able to start important
projects in the camp area. The water supply has been made much more
reliable by the construction of a water tower.
A workshop hall consisting of not much more than a roof for long
time got walls now and will be part of our training capacitiy for
the local youth of which many want to become MgM mechanics.
Many thanks to all of our private donors which support our humanitarian
work with money and moneyworth donations.
(read more about our emergancy tasks for the world food program) |
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| Help where you can with what you are
able to… |
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What
we want to achieve together by heart
What this page shows is the following: Many little bits and peaces
make the whole structure functioning. Measured by the complexity
of our chosen mission our budget may always be little, too little.
But then we experience evrey day during our work how one can get
closer to a great goal by little steps. And we experience with every
little private donation coming in how good it feels to be solidly
united to help all those who urgently need our support, help and
carying.
If you look at this way - and we do: mine clearance is fun.
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