ImpactLandmines

Landmine Activists Raises Awareness For Injured Animals, People Through Film

Landmine Activist Raises Awareness For Injured Elephants Through Film
Eleanor Goldberg
By 

Business Reporter, HuffPost

LAMPANG, THAILAND - AUGUST 29: Motala, age 50, rests in the afternoon sun with the new prosthetic made for her at the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) elephant hospital in the Mae Yao National Reserve August 29, 2011 Lampang,Thailand. Motala lost a foot many years back after stepping on a land mine and now is on her third prosthetic, as they need to be changed according to the weight of the elephant. The world's first elephant hospital assists in medical care and helps to promote a better understanding of the elephant's physiology, important in treating them for illness. For generations elephants have been a part of the Thai culture, although today the Thai elephant mostly is domesticated animal, since Thailand now has few working elephants. Many are used in the tourism sector at special elephant parks or zoos, where they perform in shows. In some cases Thailand is still deals with roaming elephants on the city streets, usually after the mahout, an elephant driver, becomes unemployed, which often causes the elephant serious stress. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
LAMPANG, THAILAND - AUGUST 29: Motala, age 50, rests in the afternoon sun with the new prosthetic made for her at the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) elephant hospital in the Mae Yao National Reserve August 29, 2011 Lampang,Thailand. Motala lost a foot many years back after stepping on a land mine and now is on her third prosthetic, as they need to be changed according to the weight of the elephant. The world's first elephant hospital assists in medical care and helps to promote a better understanding of the elephant's physiology, important in treating them for illness. For generations elephants have been a part of the Thai culture, although today the Thai elephant mostly is domesticated animal, since Thailand now has few working elephants. Many are used in the tourism sector at special elephant parks or zoos, where they perform in shows. In some cases Thailand is still deals with roaming elephants on the city streets, usually after the mahout, an elephant driver, becomes unemployed, which often causes the elephant serious stress. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Every year, between 4,000 to 5,000 people are killed or maimed by landmines. Approximately, 72 percent of the casualties are civilians, and 30 to 40 percent of those are children under the age of 15 years old. Considering there are still tens of millions of landmines in the ground in 78 countries, is it any wonder that 11 to 12 people are injured or killed each day?

And what about the landmine victims we don’t hear about, victims that literally have no voice of their own?

Read more on TakePart

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