Aki Ra's Landmine Museum

Quick posting in response to questions from Mom and Paul - yes, landmines are definitely still a huge problem. We went to a museum about them yesterday in Siem Reap. The museum was created and is run by Aki Ra, a former child soldier who fought for 3 armies and laid many landmines. After the war, he said he felt some sense of responsibility for removing the mines, so he has devoted his life to it. In addition to removing tens of thousands of mines in Cambodia and Yugoslavia, running this museum to educate people, and educating villagers on how to remove mines so that they can farm their land again without fear (the UN uses more sophisticated detection systems that are supposed to be safer, but also much more expensive and time-consuming...and the villagers need to get on with life), he also has adopted several children who are either victims of landmines or victims of the war. They live with him and receive schooling. Over the years his efforts have inspired a lot of international support, and a college fund has been established to help these kids go to college. Aki Ra also accepts donations to help pay for the costs of dismantling landmines with his team. You can read more about his story and how to help at http://www.akiramineaction.com/. According to various newspaper articles posted around Aki Ra's museum, there are an estimated 3 million landmines remaining in Cambodia. Worldwide, 40 people are casualties of landmines every day. And the U.S. has not signed the world's landmine treaty that would prevent us from producing, selling, or stockpiling landmines... It seems that Clinton promised the military would look into alternative options and we would sign by 2006.

Mom, I will send some other links about ways to help later.

We arrived in Hanoi last night, so we're pretty eager to do some exploring here. More later.