The International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action

Within its Lend Your Leg (Posodi svojo nogo) campaign and Mine Action Week, from 29 March to 4 April 2015, the ITF marked the International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. The main purpose of the campaign was to raise awareness among the Slovenian population on mine issues in the near neighbourhood as well as in the world.

The core message of the campaign was that every one of us can become a mine victim or a victim of other ERW (Explosive Remnants of War). However, the most vulnerable communities are those living in the mine affected areas. Such areas still exist in neighbouring Croatia, which is one of the most favourite tourist destinations of the Slovenians, and, not least, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is one of the most mine affected countries in the world.

To approach the Slovenian public more closely regarding the mine issue, the ITF, in cooperation with the pupils of Vič High School and the young musicians from the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana, organized on 2 April a staging of mine explosion and the following emergency response at the main square in Ljubljana, Prešernov trg.

In the evening, following the open-air performance, a concert by the Symphonic Orchestra of the Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana took place to express gratitude to and reaffirm close cooperation with ITF donors and supporters.

The concert was organized under honorary patronage of the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, Milan Brglez, and with the support of the University Rehabilitation Centre of the Republic of Slovenia. Not least, the concert was part of the events within the European Year for Development 2015.