Case studies

Following discussions with our employees in Laos and leaf suppliers in Mozambique, we have pledged £201,000 over the next few years to address the risks and consequences of unexploded ordnance in Asia and Mozambique. Unexploded ordnance restricts economic activity and so contributes to poverty, hunger and disability within communities.

Funding allocated by Imperial Tobacco is being used by the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), our NGO partner, to support operational and running costs of a mechanical de-mining support vehicle in Cambodia. An area of approximately 1,265 square meters – 990 cubic meters – had been excavated, sifted and cleared of around 73 items. This included 12 rocket-propelled grenades, nine bounding fragmentation mines, four rifle grenades, 41 60mm mortar tail fins, four rocket-propelled grenade tail pieces and three fuses. MAG has also deployed four teams to clear mines from the Quang Binh province on the North Central coast of Vietnam. During the period October 2006 to February 2007, MAG teams had cleared 60 villages of all known and reported unexploded ordnance, with the destruction of 4,286 items. In Laos, MAG has so far returned 55.2 hectares of land to communities, by removing a total of 1,153 items of unexploded ordnance.

We have made a three-year pledge, starting in 2007, to a Belgian organisation APOPO to cover the costs for staffing a unique system involving the use of trained rats to identify landmines for clearance in Mozambique.

In addition, in conjunction with No More Landmines, a UK based voluntary sector organisation, we have pledged £90,000 over the next three years to the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) based in Laos. COPE is the only provider of prosthetic, orthotic and mobility devices in the country. Our donation will be used to support staff training and equipment for five rehabilitation centres.

More information about these organisations can be found at http://www.mag.org.uk, http://www.apopo.org and http://www.copelaos.org