One survivor's story

As Dr. Bob was away at conferences for much of my first two weeks, I spent most of my time getting to know his partner organizations.

Last Friday, I learned about the work of the Zambia Mine Action Centre, the governmental department responsible for fulfilling Zambia's Ottawa Treaty obligations. After a long and drawn out process, ZMAC has finally begun a landmine impact survey, carried out by Norwegian People's Aid, to uncover exactly how much land is mined and what demining needs to be done. Although Zambia is not as affected as many other countries, the lack of information has been devastating for development and tourism – a plot of land with one suspected mine, even if it’s not actually there, is as unusable as one with hundreds of mines.

IRIN published an excellent article on the landmine situation in Zambia, "Zambia: A deadly reminder of the hospitality of the past," in which Mr. Yona Phiri, a prominent Zambian landmine survivor, was interviewed. Yona lost his right leg when he was 16 years old and struggled to even move around. Over the course of two decades, he singlehandedly fought for the Zambian government to provide him with the attention and care he knew he deserved. 28 years later, Yona is still struggling to get such basic services as transport to and from the hospital for appointments – and he is one of the lucky few survivors to live in Lusaka, relatively close to the services he needs.

Yet his resourcefulness is startling. He now has stable employment as a welder and moves around on crutches with ease. As I waited to meet him a couple weeks ago, I was surprised to see him arrive by bicycle, sweating from the long ride from his home to the hospital downtown. We talked about his and my backgrounds, the landmine and disability movements in Zambia, and of course the three cardinal conversation topics of the country: football, religion and politics.

Addressing a gap in Zambian civil society, Yona has set up the Zambia Foundation for Landmine Survivors, an organization to be comprised of landmine survivors and disabled persons as members. His goal is to create a common voice for the disparate struggles of survivors across the country. Personally, I see great potential in the Foundation to achieve social change – Yona is an inspiring leader, and there is much yet to be done.

On Saturday, I attended one of the Foundation's meetings. Besides Yona, founding members include two teachers, a nurse, an ex-military deminer, an accountant, a journalist, a reverend, a disabled rights advocate, and a sociologist, among others. Facing dire funding constraints, the Foundation has thus far failed to gather even the one million Zambian Kwacha (around $300 US) needed to register as an official organization. Following registration, the Foundation will have the legitimacy needed to submit project proposals and raise funds.

I hope to scrounge up the remainder of this registration fee (a negligible sum in fundraising terms), and then to help the Foundation get off its feet in what spare time I have. I feel strongly about the nobility of their cause – to give landmine survivors and disabled people active membership in a meaningful, nation-wide organization. I only hope that they will be able to overcome the many obstacles they are sure to face. Besides lacking the funds to register, the Foundation has little to no access to computers or printers, complicating seemingly basic activities.

Yona on his bicycle, prosthetic leg and all.

Founding members of the Zambia Foundation for Landmine Survivors (plus me).