JBF CHALLENGE GRANT

NEW MINE DETECTOR

SRI LANKA

GUATEMALA

MALAWI

KENYA

ETHIOPIA

CONGO

BURUNDI

CAMBODIA

HONDURAS

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NEW GROUND-PENATRATING RADAR MINE DETECTOR

    In addition, the Julia Burke Foundation is very proud to be the first humanitarian organization to purchase a newly developed ground-penetrating radar mine detector which will allow the deminers to better identify buried objects and to cover more ground in less time.  The HALO Trust will use this new technology in their continued efforts to save lives and return land to local communities for safe use.

New ground-penetrating radar mine detector in use

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PROJECT WITH THE HALO TRUST
IN THE JAFFNA PENINSULA OF SRI LANKA

The Julia Burke Foundation continues its partnership with the One Sri Lanka Foundation and the HALO Trust to eradicate landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the Jaffna Peninsula. This year, the U.S. Department of State has "matched" our grant and all three organizations are supporting two teams of deminers from the HALO Trust to accelerate demining in that area. The goal is to make the country mine safe by the end of 2008. We greatly appreciate the assistance of the U.S. State Department in our efforts to save lives and strengthen peace in beautiful Sri Lanka.

In remarks made at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, Richard L. Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State reported after a visit to the Jaffna Peninsula, “It was clear to me at the time that the solution had to start there, in the shattered people and bombed-out villages, in the universal longing for a better life.”

Sri Lanka is emerging from a civil war, which has raged with varying intensity since 1983. Landmines were laid by both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government of Sri Lanka, to protect military bases and defensive areas. Following a ceasefire agreement, the two parties appear to be steering a path towards peaceful co-existence. Both have made commitments to refrain from the use of landmines and have made demining a priority, with the first step being the clearance of areas surrounding schools, public buildings and places of worship. This peace plan is a precursor to the progress that can be made towards clearing mines.

The Julia Burke Foundation, partnering with One Sri Lanka Foundation, is supporting a team of deminers to clear mines and UXO’s (Unexploded Ordinances) on the Jaffna Peninsula. As a member of a delegation formed by One Sri Lanka Foundation, www.onesrilanka.org, Marilyn Burke, Executive Director of The Julia Burke Foundation, toured the landmine affected areas.

For more information about The HALO Trust, and to see videos, go to www.halousa.org.

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MICROLOAN PROJECTS IN GUATEMALA, MALAWI AND KENYA

MICROLOAN PROJECT IN GUATEMALA

Our 2007 project in Guatemala, operated by NamasteDirect (www.Namaste-Direct.org) and the in-country partner, Edubanco/CARE (www.care.org) is funding loans to a new group of 100 women in the rural community of Motagua. This group is one of the first groups formed within the new “Times Five” Program, meaning that brand new borrowers’ microloans will be funded through this grant for five years.

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MICROLOAN PROJECT IN MALAWI

In Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa, we are sponsoring three new "village banks" offering as many as 150 women loans, a safe and profitable place to accumulate savings, group support for personal empowerment, life insurance, and credit cards, operated by the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA www.villagebanking.org). These new businesses include tailoring, hair salons, pharmacies, food sales, small-holder agriculture, transportation and crafts.

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WATER PURIFICATION IN KENYA

The Julia Burke Foundation is pleased to partner with Population Services International for a clean water project in Ethiopia. Currently, there is an outbreak of accute diarrhea in Gondar, and our project will provide free treatment of up to 650 million litres of water to local families. For more information about Population Services International, go to www.psi.org.

Our Kenya project is operated by Kiva (meaning "agreement" or "unity" in Swahili) (www.kiva.org) and the Women's Economic Empowerment Consort (WEEC), and will fund loans for up to 100 of the very poor women including Masai tribeswomen who traditionally raise cattle and who need to buy cattle for breeding and/or for dairy products.

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PROJECT WITH THE POLUS CENTER IN ETHIOPIA

The Ethiopian Self-Empowerment Project's goal is to assist grassroots disability organizations in building their capacity to effectively implement their own, individual projects and to identify the common needs of persons with disabilities in order to allow them to become independent.

Women with disabilities in Ethiopia are very vulnerable from a combination of both gender discrimination and the stigma associated with disabilities. A delegation from the Polus Center traveled to Ethiopia to meet with individuals with disabilities. Using the information gathered from this meeting, the Ethiopian Self-Empowerment Project has been established. The Women with Disabilities National Association of Ethiopia, and the Moon Leprosy Cooperative are part of this project. The overwhelming need for immediate assistance by many of the persons with disabilities interviewed is painfully evident.

While the Polus Center remains committed to working with the associations toward addressing long-term needs and implementing demonstration projects, the need for daily sustenance needs to be addressed.

The Julia Burke Foundation grant will help provide emergency, short-term assistance for basic survival which includes food, shelter, and health-care while the Polus Center continues to work toward providing sustainable income-generating opportunities.

For more information about The Polus Center, go to www.poluscenter.org

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PROJECT WITH THE HALO TRUST
IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO AND IN BURUNDI

The funding provided by the Foundation allowed HALO to access areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. The HALO Trust undertook plans to conduct an assessment of the humanitarian mines situation in the Central African Region. Initially the assessment was to focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundi. However, in reaction to events during this period, the survey encompassed Central African Republic (CAR) as well. The survey has had a great influence in HALO’s strategic planning for its own operations, and has been extremely useful in the briefings the HALO regularly gives to major mine clearance donors. A peace agreement, between the warring parties was signed on July 30, 2002 and the process of withdrawing troops by Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Uganda has begun.

Over the course of 2002 HALO has been monitoring the situation in the Great Lakes. Given that considerable headway has been made towards peace in both the DRC and Burundi, HALO will be deploying a mission to the Great Lakes Region in order to assess the impact of mines and UXO.

For more information about the above photos, and to see videos and more information about The HALO Trust, go to www.halousa.org.

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MINES ADVISORY GROUP – CAMBODIA
EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL PROJECT INTERIM REPORT

Co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize

The project funded by The Julia Burke Foundation provided a trained mobile Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team to work with the local community and other agencies to clear the threat of mines and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) from the province(s) of Cambodia most seriously affected by the threat of mines and UXO. The EOD team consisted of five personnel, including one supervisor and one trauma care medic.

NOTE: FOUNDATION LOGO ON DEMINING TEAM AND TRUCK

The team members are highly qualified in Explosive Ordnance Disposal methods. Through the course of the two months of operation, the team was deployed to do the UXO demolition task following receiving the reports from the community people, local authorities and the community liaison teams.

So far the team has conducted 100 demolition tasks. They have destroyed 188 anti-personnel mines, 8 anti-tank mines, and 480 items of UXO in the provinces of Battambang and Pursat.

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PROJECT WITH THE POLUS CENTER AT THE VIDA NUEVA
PROSTHETIC CLINIC IN CHOLUTECA, HONDURAS FOR LANDMINE ACCIDENT SURVIVORS

Secretary of State Colin Powell has recognized the Polus Center as having "created path-breaking, community-based programs in Nicaragua and Honduras, providing artificial limbs to the poorest of the poor" and the US Agency for International Development's Leahy War Victims Fund has reported that the artificial limbs produced are "durable and of the highest quality."

Vida Nueva exemplifies the Polus Center's approach of working at the grassroots level and working towards sustainable solutions. By training local people, many of whom are prosthesis users themselves, to become prosthetic technicians using appropriate technologies and components that can be purchased locally, and fostering strong relationships within the community, Vida Nueva is building towards self-sufficiency both financially and in expertise, despite the fact that the average prosthesis costs about $600, almost one year's income ($730) of the average Honduran. The Julia Burke Foundation grant will provide new prosthetic limbs and related services to the 47 people on the waiting list at the new clinic, insuring that Vida Nueva becomes fully operational in FY 2003, its first and most costly year.