FSD

Locate and destroy landmines

It is estimated that since 1975, over one million people, mostly civilians, were killed or injured by landmines. These vicious, small explosive containers are designed to cause serious injury to a person through an explosive blast or fragmentation. What makes an anti-personnel mine so abhorrent is the fact that they are designed to maim and not to kill. Anti-personnel mines cannot distinguish between the footfall of a soldier and that of a child. Unlike bullets and artillery shells, mines are not aimed or fired, instead they lie dormant until a person or animal triggers their detonating mechanism.

The FSD is a not-for-profit, independent and neutral organisation, based in Geneva. The FSD eliminates explosive remnants of war and other forms of pollutions so that people can again live in a safe environment.

Our operations have led us to 24 mine and war affected countries around the globe, in the past 17 years. They include:

Conduct humanitarian demining operations, clearance and neutralization of mines and non-exploded ordnance;
The destruction of stockpiles of mines and other arms and munitions;
The remediation of other pollution, such as legacy uranium tailings, pesticide and mercury.

If world-wide clearance operations have secured millions of m2 of hazardous land and thereby prevented thousands of accidents, a lot of work still needs to be done. And worse: unfortunately, recent and current crisis situation create new dangerous explosive threats for the civilians, foremost in the violent Syrian conflict. As an example, FSD has been contracted in August 2015 to clear former Kurdish villages in Northern Iraq from mines and booby traps, which have been left behind by ISIS, which occupied them for a short period. The about 160’000 residents of these villages are currently housing in refugee camps or trying to find a new life in one of the European countries. FSD teams will render these abandoned villages safe again, in order to allow the residents to return to their houses instead of adding to the current refugee crisis.

www.fsd.ch

FSD and Wonderlands

On the 29th September 2014, Wonderlands entered a Charitable Partnership Agreement with FSD. The Partnership, signed at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, aims to support the courageous work of FSD teams in clearing land from mines and other explosive remnants of war. This is an extreme essential work in countries where FSD operates as it prevents horrific accidents from happening to innocent people and animals.

To date, this Partnership has already cleared a total of 171,666 m2 of minefields.

"Private giving is a growing source of funding for humanitarian assistance. More than a quarter of all international humanitarian assistance was financed with private donations over the past five years. FSD and Wonderlands share the same values. We both strive for quality, creativity, customer service, green and sustainable principles, and focus on our community.

From the first contacts on, we felt and appreciated the strong personal commitment and engagement to a high quality, creative approach by Wonderlands.

The spread of knowledge and sensitivity about the problem of landmines and cluster ammunition in the Wonderlands community is as important as the financial contribution to our operations. With time, we will be able to increase leverage in social media through our joint promotional efforts for our products and services."

Hansjörg Eberle

Director FSD