The Aftermath



You would have thought that the troubles of a land mine victim would have stopped when he recovered (physically) from his wounds ... however, this is not so!
The injury and its aftermath is probably the most traumatic and trying experience that any human being can ever live through. It is like an endless obstacle course where problems, whether mental or emotional or physical, plague you for the rest of your life...

But yet, it is not the pain and disfigurment that kills... nor the prejudice and mistreatment. Rather, it is (especially in Third World nations) the fact that losing a limb reduces one to poverty, begging, sickness, and ultimately death.

The countries not only have to deal with the present problem like the care (both physical and mental) of these amputees and survivors... but also begin to adapt society to fit these people in. The infratstructure needs to be able to accomodate them; society must learn not to discriminate them; employment, education, continual health care, housing... all these need to be looked into.
Basically, nursing these patients back to health is just the beginning to a long term (and arduous) change of society, for the good of these many survivors.

Of Mines & Children
Landmines kill indiscrimately : soldiers or civillians; man or woman... however, the ones who bear the brunt of most of the tragedies are the children.

Hundreds of thousands of children, while herding animals, planting crops or just playing, have been killed or maimed by these deadly weapons. Of the 2 000 of so people killed or maimed by land mines every month, more than 30-40% of them are children.

There is about 1 mine for every 12 children in the world.


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