Mine Safety Trainings to Be Held in Donbas Grey Zone

15:32 / 19 Apr. 2016 / 715

“Restoring Donbas” Community Initiative prepares a series of mine safety trainings which will be held in the grey zone of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. Olena Petryayeva, Head of the Initiative, told about that on the air of “Labyrinths of Opinions” Program on Donbas TV-channel.

“On an almost daily basis we hear of explosions in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, people get mine-blast traumas. That is a very severe injury, which leads either to death or amputation. Trainings with teachers of school institutions, officers of authorities and schoolchildren have recently been held in Lysychansk alongside with the Conference “Restoring Donbas and Ukraine”. The trainings have shown that most civilians don’t even know how to behave where a suspicious item is detected”, – Olena Petryayeva noted.

Trainings prepared by volunteers of “Restoring Donbas” Community Initiative within the framework of the Program “12 Steps towards Peace and Restoration of Donbas and Ukraine”, include two key directions: warning (what is dangerous, how to act and where to turn to) and premedical care delivery. A special video has been prepared for the youngest children. The volunteers of the Initiative also work on creation of an educational film.

As of 12 April 2016 pyrotechnic subdivisions of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces detected 54 thousand 907 ammunition units.

It will be recalled that according to UNICEF Ukraine International Fund from the beginning of the armed conflict in the East of Ukraine mines and explosive objects caused 68 deaths and over 100 injuries among children.

The organization also notes extremely low awareness of the population regarding behavior upon detection of an explosive or suspicious item. According to UNICEF Ukraine, every sixth girl and every tenth boy living in Donbas don’t know how to behave if they see a mine or a projectile, 24% of children interrogated by the specialists don’t know how warning signs look like. Children don’t understand how to behave in a mine field either. 24% of interrogated children aged 6 to 17 answered: “Once in a mine field – run”. Another 18% admitted that they don’t know what to do at all.

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