De-mining Sri Lanka: a job for widows and survivors
Sri Lanka is one of the most densely mined countries in the world. Since 2002 HALO has removed over 200,000 mines. [Devaka Seneviratne/Halo Trust Archives/Al Jazeera]
Sri Lanka is one of the most densely mined countries in the world. Since 2002 HALO has removed over 200,000 mines. [Devaka Seneviratne/Halo Trust Archives/Al Jazeera]
Fifty percent of HALO's de-miners in Sri Lanka are women. Many are the sole earner in their household [Devaka Seneviratne/Halo Trust Archives/Al Jazeera]
Muhamalai, Sri Lanka - Not so long ago Shanmukam Thankamuththu had 25 goats; now she has only five.
The other 20 have been sold, each animal bringing in 9,000 rupees, or around $60, depending on its size. "I sold one and used the money to build this wall. I sold another to dig the well," she says, explaining how her goats paid for her house.
This sturdy but cramped single-room structure is occupied by the 56-year-old, her husband and the two youngest of their seven children, along with two dogs and a ginger kitten. Thankamuththu is one of hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced - many more than once - over the course of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war.
