News

On Friday, 9 September 2022, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to BIH, H.E. Mrs. Ivana Hlavsová, visited the site of a Czech-funded mine clearance project in close vicinity to the local road and school, which had been completed that same day.

The ‘Clear then Grow’ project integrated the clearance of explosive ordnance and EORE. It went beyond ensuring a safe environment for the rural communities in Northeast Syria and provided direct assistance in support of agricultural livelihoods.

In Northeast Syria, ITF is supporting clearance of explosive ordnance, explosive ordnance risk education, and provides agriculture support to the local population whose livelihoods depend on farming.

In May 2022, we hosted Paralympic athletes from Bosnia and Hercegovina, the president of the sitting volleyball club from Sarajevo and a mountaineer who climbed Slovenia's highest peak, Triglav, all of them exceptional individuals and mine survivors.

We are proud of the achievements accomplished in 2021 and are extremely grateful to everyone who has supported our humanitarian work. Humanity, compassion, innovation, transparency, and partnerships are the guiding principles we pursue.

This year’s Mine Awareness Day is unfortunately observed during a new armed conflict in Europe, which ITF strongly condemns. The images we see remind us of the important role mine action community plays and will continue to play in the future.

Voluntary work is important as a resource of mutual help and a way of encouraging youth to actively participate in their communities. That was the focus of the program we are implementing with our local partner.

Since May 2020 we have been implementing risk and health education workshops in Jordan with our partner AMACC. The project focuses on the many Syrian refugees, especially children, with the aim to enable their eventual safe return home.

As we made our first steps in the new year, we want to look back to all the projects we carried out in 2021 and the changes we implemented so we could continue our humanitarian work around the world while making sure everyone stayed safe and healthy.

Thanks to the support of the Republic of Slovenia, we were able to start what is currently the only mine victim assistance project in Lebanon.

On 16 November 2021, a presentation of the Mine Victims Assistance project for mine victims in BiH took place in Sarajevo, which was graciously attended by H. E. Ambassador Margret Uebber, and Military Attache Franz-Josef Nolte.

We have several sites in Bosnia and Hercegovina (BIH), including two demining projects right next to a border crossing from BIH to Montenegro, which have recently been successfully completed, releasing 13,664 square meters of land, and removing 2 mines.

Together with Austrian Development Agency we have visited the ongoing clearance and risk education project with an integrated agricultural recovery programme in Northeast Syria.

Four cluster munition clearance project tasks implemented in Serbia – three in the Municipality of Sjenica and one in the Municipality of Tutin. The project enabled for 1,017,340 square meters of land to be safely returned to the local residents.

Mine Free Sarajevo has officially been completed. Over six million square meters of mine-affected areas in and around the BIH capital Sarajevo have been released and 841 landmines and UXO have been found and destroyed in the process.

We are pleased to announce that Germany continues to support the land release activities and rehabilitation program in BiH in 2021 with the goal of enhancing the quality of life and social status of mine victims and their family members.

ITF has successfully enabled the participation of beekeepers, mine/UXO victims from BIH, in a training program, where they learned more about the culture of beekeeping, thanks to the support from the Republic of Korea.

More than two decades after the end of the war, Sarajevo will be mine free. Project supported by the United States government will enable safe return of more than 6 million square meters of land to local residents.

On the occasion of the official visit of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan H.E. Mr. Toshimitsu Motegi to Bosnia and Herzegovina, ITF Director Tomaž Lovrenčič signed a Donation Agreement with the Ambassador of Japan H. E. Makoto Ito.

At the beginning of 2021, ITF was able to provide 297 at-risk families in Ukraine with much-needed everyday items thanks to the generous donation of the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.