Why job of clearing Cambodia’s landmines is giving locals the chance to improve their lives

Six years ago, Soy Kossal stepped on a landmine as he walked along a well-trodden path to his fields in Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia.

The force blew off his right leg, leaving the 28-year-old part-time carpenter a cripple, with no immediate hope of being able to support his wife and family. His tale is all the more tragic because it was an occurrence so regular as to be almost unremarkable in Cambodia.

Luckily his wife, Kolab, paid no heed to the doomsayers, helped him to overcome the trauma and encouraged him to seek other employment. Furnished with a prosthetic, Soy Kassal found a job as a deminer with a charity, and promptly took on a new lease of life.