KABUL - Today, Kabul’s Babur Gardens was host to 240 children learning how to avoid the dangers posed by landmines and other explosive remnants of war at an event organized by the Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan (MACCA).

The teaching methods for the mine-risk education messages included theatre, movies, singing and other interactive teaching methods. Once the teaching sessions were completed, the children were given the opportunity to design posters that would warn other children of the dangers of mines.

Kreshma, a seven-year-old girl who participated in these sessions, knows the impact that mines can have on families very well: “When I was a small child, my father stepped on a mine and now he has a disability. Whenever I see him limping, it makes me sad. Today I learned that I should not touch or even drop stones on mines – instead I should immediately tell elders if I see one.”

All of the posters designed by the children at Babur Gardens today will be entered into a competition to be judged by a panel consisting of Mine Risk Education experts and an artist. The winners of this competition will have the opportunity to have a professional artist help them paint their design on a wall in MACCA on 4 April 2010 – International Mine Action Day.

A number of different implementing partners from the Mine Action Programme of Afghanistan (MAPA) came together to hold the event, including the Mobile Mini Circus for Children, Afghan Red Crescent Society, AAR Japan and OMAR.

Through the work of these implementing partners, over one million Afghans received mine-risk education in 2009. Almost 70 per cent of those reached were children and 40 per cent were women and girls.

In 2009, some 483 Afghans were killed or injured by landmines or other explosive remnants of war, over half of whom were children. However, this shows a decrease from 777 in 2008, and over 75 per cent decrease from the high point of 2,027 in 2001.

Website: MACCA