Friday, October 14, 2022

Mine Detection Dog Partnership Program Update for USMA Class of 1970

 

Mine Detection Dog Partnership Program
Update for USMA Class of 1970 September 2022

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI) would like to extend our appreciation to the United States Military Academy Class of 1970 for your support of our humanitarian work. Thanks to your sponsorship of Mine Detection Dog Nam in 2016, communities in Sri Lanka are able to live without the fear of landmines and other dangerous explosives.

Sri Lanka

MDD Nam continues to work with the Sri Lankan Army’s Humanitarian Demining Unit (HDU). Thus far in 2022, MDD Nam
has assisted the HDU in searching 17,074 square meters of land in
the Muhamalai and Palaly demining sites. During this period, 
Nam,
together with the HDU’s three other MDD teams, identified 17 antiMDD Nam personnel mines and 3 pieces of UXO (unexploded ordnance).

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All of the land searched by Nam will be returned to the people and used in agriculture and housing development. The HDU estimates that the work of Nam has directly benefitted 500 families since she started working with the HDU.

The HDU continues its long-standing work in Muhamalai, northern Sri Lanka. An area three times the size of Central Park in Muhamalai was heavily contaminated by landmines after the civil war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers ended in 2009. Massive efforts to clear the area have allowed people to resume normal lives and to finally leave the war behind.

Palaly hosts a military base and is located in the northern Jaffna region of Sri Lanka. Palaly, a town caught in the middle of the warring sides during the civil war, was left littered with landmines and many of its inhabitants were displaced. Clearance efforts have contributed greatly to the return of land – and people – in this region.

On behalf of the HDU and the people of Sri Lanka, MLI thanks the USMA Class of ’70 for your support in making Sri Lankan land safe again for communities to live, work, and play in.

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MDD Nam with handler

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