U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Press Statement

MEDIA NOTE
February 8, 2001

New Jersey Middle School Students to Help Demine Bosnian Town.

An innovative class project by students at Tenafly Middle School in Tenafly, New Jersey, to raise awareness about the global landmine threat, has grown into a non-profit organization - Global Care Unlimited, Inc. -- that will formally cooperate with the Slovenian International Trust Fund (ITF) for Demining and Mine Victim Assistance to fund landmine clearance in Podzvidz, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The students' generous effort will also add to the growing list of public-private partnerships with the U.S. Department of State to reinforce official efforts to make the world mine safe for innocent civilians.

In a ceremony at the Middle School in Tenafly, Thursday, February 8, at 9:15 a.m., Global Care Unlimited will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Director of the Slovenian International Trust Fund to channel funds raised by the students to the ITF, earmarked for mine clearance in Podzvidz. Those funds will be matched by the U.S. Department of State's Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs, whose underwriting of the ITF enables private and foreign government donors to double their support for humanitarian demining throughout much of the former Yugoslav Federation.

Led by teacher Mark Hyman, the students, members of the Tenafly Middle School Landmines Club, formed Global Care Unlimited and have spent the last year giving presentations throughout the New York Metropolitan Area about the threat posed by landmines. They have raised $18,000 for mine action to date.

The U.S. Department of State first became aware of the efforts of these socially responsible young people last July when Hyman brought several of them to Washington, D.C. to give their multi-media presentation to the staff of the Office of the Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Global Humanitarian Demining. The Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs within the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs subsequently agreed to assist them to achieve their goals.

The Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs provides funding assistance for mine clearance and awareness initiatives in 37 mine-affected nations. The United States first became involved in humanitarian demining in 1988. Since 1993, it has devoted over $400 million dollars for minefield surveys, mine clearance, mine awareness programs, and mine victim assistance and rehabilitation around the world. The program for which the State Department has lead responsibility, includes the Department of Defense, which provides training and equipment as well as research and development into new detection technologies, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides support to mine victims' assistance through the Leahy War Victims Fund. The U.S. will contribute approximately $90 million dollars more this fiscal year.

The Office of the Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Global Humanitarian Demining supports efforts in the U.S. and abroad to accelerate landmine detection and clearance programs, promote landmine awareness in affected nations, assist survivors of landmine accidents, enhance research and development of new demining technologies, and develop public-private partnerships, such as the one with Global Care Unlimited, to support these programs.

For additional information, contact David Rabadan, U.S. Department of State, Office of Global Humanitarian Demining, at (202) 647-0561.