May 21, 2008

Australian Network to Ban Landmines seeks volunteers

The Australian Network to Ban Landmines is seeking volunteers to help with face-to-face collections in central Sydney during the week beginning Monday June 23, as part of its Lost Sock Appeal.

The Lost Sock Appeal and will have as its logo a single sock, symbolising the limbs lost to landmines around the world. All money donated will go towards the work of the Australian Network to Ban Landmines (ANBL). Half the money will go to projects to assist the victims of landmines and half will go to the work of the ANBL to make the treaty banning anti-personnel landmines universal, so that no more mines are manufactured, none are laid, and existing minefields are cleared.

The Australian Network is a volunteer organisation with no paid staff.

Victim Assistance Projects

In Cambodia the ANBL funds assistance to victims of landmines. Of your donation:

$25 will provide rice to a family where the main wage earner has been disabled by a landmine, so that the children of the family can go to school.

$100 will buy a wheelchair for a landmine survivor

$1,100 will provide a house for a family where one of the family members has been disabled by a landmine

In Thailand the ANBL provides funding to a Prosthetics Clinic in Mae Sot near the Burma Border to assist those injured and disabled by landmines on the border.

In Nepal the ANBL funds education programs for mine affected communities mainly in rural areas, including:

• basic literacy and numeracy;
• computer training; and
• leadership capacity training for women

Click here for more detailed information on volunteering. If you are able to volunteer for face-to-face collections, or know someone who might be, please contact Jill Cooper via email at Jill.Cooper@victas.uca.org.au or by phoning (03) 9251 5266 / 0458 393 291. It is envisaged that volunteers will be scheduled for shifts of two to three hours morning and evening at various key points from Monday to Friday and on Saturday morning.

For more information on the Australian Network to Ban Landmines, visit http://australia.icbl.org/.