Land mines, unexplained ordnance, lost limbs and lives are not the subjects usually associated with a ladies social evening. However, members of SI Tenby and District had chosen this subject to give them more insight into their Federation project 'Limbs for Life', working in conjunction with the Red Cross in Geneva.
The speaker Mr. P. Collinson was a bomb disposal expert working in Bosnia, overseeing the project funded by the Norwegian Humanitarian Organisation. With the use of computer images he explained the types of land mines used, how they were detected and the human suffering caused by them. He explained the logistics of the exercise, the numbers of landmines etc., laid over the years and the sheer volume of cost for equipment, personnel, protective clothing, medical supplies and food had the members gasping.
Most of the personnel were Albanians and the clearing was done in teams. There were five teams and astonishingly two of the teams were composed entirely of women. The women's teams were, he said extremely organised, and, given their section to work, could be left to get on with the task. The male teams had to be supervised. The reason given as that the Albanian male, due to the culture, tended to be very 'Macho' and were inclined to take risks, the women concentrated on the task ahead of them.
Each team had a paramedic and an ambulance attached to them for immediate medical care if there was an accident.
Mr. Collinson told of one tragic event when one of their best women team leaders slipped into a water filled ditch and landed on a mine that had floated down from another area. Her foot had to be amputated and initially she wanted to die because, as a Muslim, she was now incomplete and so would remain unmarried. However, she was airlifted to a hospital in Sweden and following the fitting of prosthesis and counselling, she was back in Bosnia coping very well and touring schools to lecture children on the dangers of landmines.
Many other stories followed, many questions were asked and at the end of a very full one-and-a-half hours, he was thanked most warmly and congratulated on the work he is doing.
The club assured him that they would be working hard with the rest of the SI Federation to raise the funds necessary to supply the huge numbers of prosthesis needed to help people who have suffered lost limbs because of this dreadful practice of landmine laying.