February 27, 20206 yr From South China Morning Post NGOs striving to clear Cambodia’s minefields are giving opportunities to local men and women, including landmine survivors and female labourers Six years ago, Soy Kossal stepped on a landmine as he walked along a well-trodden path to his fields in Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia. The force blew off his right leg, leaving the 28-year-old part-time carpenter a cripple, with no immediate hope of being able to support his wife and family. His tale is all the more tragic because it was an occurrence so regular as to be almost unremarkable in Cambodia. “I was so depressed. I was ashamed and isolated myself from everyone. I didn’t want to live. People were telling my wife she should get a divorce,” says Soy Kossal. Luckily his wife, Kolab, paid no heed to the doomsayers, helped him to overcome the trauma and encouraged him to seek other employment. Furnished with a prosthetic, Soy Kassal found a job as a deminer with a charity, and promptly took on a new lease of life. ”It took me a long time to cope with the emotional struggle,” he says. “I knew I had to continue to support my family, but at the same time I didn’t want other people to suffer the same fate that I did. I want to clear all the mines in the country, every single one.” Soy Kossal is one of thousands of innocent victims – estimated at 64,000 – who have fallen foul of unexploded ordnance (UXO), a hideous legacy of the conflict that ravaged Cambodia late last century. There’s now a hospital in Battambang that treats anyone injured by UXO for free – though there’s no shortage of victims lining up for service. One of the biggest minefields in the world – a 500-metre (1,600-foot) wide strip dubbed K5 that was laid in a fruitless attempt to forestall Khmer Rouge guerillas – runs for 800km (500 miles) along the Thai-Cambodian border. Continues with photos and video https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3052284/why-job-clearing-cambodias-landmines-giving-locals-chance-improve-their
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