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This is a bilingual report in Italian and English.
INTRODUCTION
Setting priorities after a war is indeed a hard task, but the mine
problem should rank high on any agenda for the material and
social development of Bosnia. Of the many issues involved with
the mine problem, mine awareness - a process by which people
will become aware of the danger of mines and responsible for
their and other people's safety - should constitute a priority.
Firstly, because de-mining will take years to complete and will
never guarantee safety one hundred percent. Secondly, because
some re-mining cases have already occurred and the only
defence against re-mining is mine awareness. Lastly but not
least, because mine awareness is the best way to pave the road
to de-mining, as it makes people responsible for reporting about
the presence of mines or unknown mine-fields to the competent
authorities.
Throughout the year 1997 the Italian non-governmental
organisation Ai.Bi Associazione Amici dei Bambini has been
conducting, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(which has funded a wide de-mining programme through the
World Bank), a mine awareness campaign targeting the most
vulnerable group: the children. The campaign was based on a
long monitoring phase and consisted in the production of two
mine awareness videos - targeting respectively children and their
parents - and the distribution of VCR equipment to watch them.
As the campaign was reaching is end it was time for an
evaluation of the project's achievements and a thought about its
potentials for the future. For this reason the present publication
is divided into two parts: the first part is devoted to a description
of the project while the second contains some proposals for its
future developments.
The description of the project starts with the findings of the
monitoring phase and provides information about mine
dissemination, mine incidents, other mine awareness campaigns
in Bosnia and the target group of the project. A presentation of
the procedures adopted and an explanation of its content follow
thereafter. Finally the results of the project are presented.
Yet, the evaluation of the past cannot go without a look at the
future. Frequent contacts with the local competent authorities,
with the other organisations involved in mine awareness
programmes in Bosnia and, above all, with Bosnian children
brought Ai.Bi. to the conclusion that a lot was achieved, but even
more was still to be done. Suggestions and requests were
combined in the last part of the present publication, in an attempt
to draw the future lines of development of mine awareness for
children in Bosnia.