Non-Governmental Organizations: How To Get Involved

Grassroots advocacy is at the heart of the Adopt-A-Minefield concept. Private citizens, as well as schools, church groups and other organizations come together to raise funds and awareness, giving people all around the world a way to become directly involved in this humanitarian issue.

Adopt-A-Minefield works with individuals and groups to initiate fundraising campaigns at all levels. Many organizations set a goal to raise enough funds to clear an entire minefield. Others contribute funds that will be pooled with other donations.

An Adopt-A-Minefield campaign is a wonderful way for organizations to offer members a way to engage with the world, and to build new membership. The process is simple, and the results very powerful.

Organizations can support Adopt-A-Minefield in a variety of ways.

• Night of a Thousand Dinners: Participate in Adopt-A-Minefield's global fundraising event, Night of a Thousand Dinners, hosting a dinner in your home, church, community center or local restaurant to raise funds for AAM. To learn more, visit www.1000dinners.com.

Other ideas include:

• Benefit Dinner or Luncheon
• Benefit Concert
• Speaker Series
• Sponsored Run or Dance-a-Thon
• Charity Sports Event
• Golf or Tennis Tournament
• Benefit Movie
• Community Picnic
• Talent Show
• Bake Sales

Case Study: Unitarian Universalist Church

Churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques have long been a mainstay of support for Adopt-A-Minefield.  Often, their ideologies are in sync with the mission of AAM’s work; helping others by saving lives and returning land to productive use is a way to extend peace and aid to our international neighbors.

Among the many of these organizations that have contributed to our efforts, we would like to highlight the Unitarian Universalist Church in this communication. Many individuals from several Unitarian Universalist congregations located throughout the country have donated time and funds to the Campaign, raising thousands of dollars for clearance projects in our six program countries. In addition to this generous support from individuals and community congregations, the Unitarian Universalists have also launched two much larger campaigns on the East Coast. The Unitarian Universalist Congregations of the Greater Washington DC Area joined forces and raised a combined total of $26,509.50 and the Unitarian Universalists United Nations Office Organization raised an additional $30,210.94, together raising nearly $60,000 for AAM!

Working with religious and spiritual groups in your communities is yet another way to advance the humanitarian work of AAM and the UNA. For more information about Unitarian Universalists, visit the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) at www.uua.org or learn more about their service committee at www.uusc.org. 

Case Study: Roots of Peace

Roots of Peace, a non-profit organization in Northern California dedicated to the eradication of landmines, has donated an astonishing $200,000 to AAM over the course of the last five years. Working with leading California vintners like Robert Mondavi, Beringer Wine Estates and Gallo of Sonoma, Roots of Peace has raised funds to ‘replace mines with vines’ in several of AAM’s program countries. In one six-month campaign alone, they raised over $170,000 for Afghanistan demining; the Harvest of Hope Campaign began on September 11, 2002, and ended February 23, 2003, coinciding with ‘Eid-ul-Adha’, a traditional day of peace, thanksgiving and forgiveness in the Muslim culture. The funds raised, which were presented to Mr. Hekmat Karzai, First Secretary of the Afghan Embassy, were used to clear vineyards in the Shomali Plains, just north of Kabul. 

With these funds, 15 demining teams were able to clear 67,728 square meters of minefield area and another 10,881,460 square meters of battle area. 98,227 pieces of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and 388 landmines were found and destroyed.  This has allowed hundreds of internally displaced peoples and refugee families to resettle in their villages.  Over the same period of time, 7,055 men, 5,126 women, 10,346 boys and 6,890 girls received mine risk education to increase their awareness of the potential problems of mines, UXO and cluster bombs in their villages.  Our demining partners report that clearance of residential areas and vineyards have also promoted food security and income generation in the area.  In addition, the clearance of the main Khalazai Canal in Qarabagh district has allowed for the irrigation of hundreds of acres of vineyards, resulting in exponentially increased grape production in 2004. To find out more about Roots of Peace, and their exciting initiatives, please visit their website at www.rootsofpeace.org.

Case Study: All for the Earth Foundation

The All for the Earth Foundation (AFTE)—founded by John Westley and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota—is a network coalition of non-profit charitable organizations dedicated to promoting and advocating the efficient use of resources for global environmental social causes. Their mission is to foster protection of the environment and to accomplish this by seeking contributions and making the maximum possible proportion of contributions available for grants to individuals or institutions dedicated to the protection of the environment.

AFTE has been working with AAM since the very beginning. They have raised a cumulative $142,420 for mine action in five of our six program countries: Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, and Mozambique. In 1999, AFTE cleared CRO-1 and MOZ-1, the very first minefields AAM tackled in Croatia and Mozambique! They also adopted and cleared two minefields in Bosnia-Herzegovina: BiH-14(02) & BiH-31(01), one minefield in Cambodia: CAM-9, contributed pooled funds to a second field clearance operation in Cambodia: CAM-65, and funded two weeks of demining in 2003 in Afghanistan: Mine Dog Center Team 5.

John Westley’s goal is to clear a field or fund a team in every one of AAM’s program countries. With only Vietnam to go, he’s very close to achieving that goal. Congratulations to All for the Earth Foundation for all their hard work. For more information about how your chapter can get involved with AFTE, please visit their website at www.afte.net. The site features the AAM public service announcement, as well as a rotating display of all the AAM clearance certificates John and AFTE have earned through their many adoptions.