Less than one month before the global ban on cluster munitions becomes international law, celebrated British writer and comedian Victoria Wood has visited the war-scarred countryside of Laos to film an appeal in aid of MAG (Mines Advisory Group).

Each year, BBC audiences raise around £100m, benefiting hundreds of charities across the UK and overseas. By presenting the a BBC Lifeline appeal Victoria is helping to raise awareness and funds for the life-saving work carried out by Manchester-based charity MAG.  The programme will air on BBC One on Sunday 25 July.

Victoria spent a week in Xieng Khouang province, northern Laos, where the legacy of a conflict that ended nearly 40 years ago still haunts thousands of people.

Victoria experienced MAG’s lifesaving work first hand, witnessing one of the charity’s all-female teams of technicians destroy 20 deadly cluster munitions found on farmer Va Por Lor’s land. In total MAG discovered 500 bombs on his land.

In order to understand the vital importance of MAG’s work Victoria visited a hospital in the town of Phonsavanh where she met 11-year-old Te. Te had been planting vegetables in his garden two weeks before when his spade hit a hidden unexploded cluster bomb.

The blast broke his arm, knocked out his teeth and he had wounds from the shrapnel. But he will survive.

“When I met Te I was struck by the level of injury he had, and it’s shocking to realise that he is actually one of the lucky ones. Most people who fall victim to the bombs are killed,” said Victoria.

“I just hadn’t realised how much the war had affected people in Laos until I came here.”

“The doctors see more than a hundred people with these injuries every year in just this one provincial hospital. It’s really shocking to realise the terrible impact these bombs, which are almost 40 years old, are having on people’s lives even now.”

If you would like to get involved with MAG, follow this link to their website.

Photo: Steve Joyce / MAG

Tags: fundraising, international, Mines Advisory Group

This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.