The HALO Trust

For over thirty years, we've been saving lives and helping war-torn communities recover by making their land safe. When conflict ends, land is all too often littered with landmines and other dangerous explosives. Families live in fear and poverty. They can't plant crops or graze cattle, and day-to-day activities like getting to school and fetching water are fraught with risk. True peace doesn't come until their land is safe. Our mission is to protect lives and restore the livelihoods of those affected by conflict. We do this by recruiting and training local men and women to clear landmines in their own communities. With their earnings, they can rebuild their lives. Some buy livestock, others plant crops, or even start a business. They are once again in control of their own destiny.

We are proud that 98% of our approximately 10,000 to 12,500 employees come from the communities we serve. Our humanitarian work saves lives and has transformed the future for millions of families, but there is still much to do. We are working to fulfil the promise of the 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty. As well as clearing landmines, we deal with unexploded ordnance, from bullets to aircraft bombs, and we educate communities to keep them safe. We also build safe arms stores and systems for securing guns. We began our work in Afghanistan in 1988 and today we have programmes in 28 to 30 countries and territories across the world. Our largest operation is in Afghanistan. Over the last thirty-five years, we have cleared landmines from 29 countries and territories. We have destroyed over 1.5 million landmines, over 11 million pieces of large calibre ordnance, and over 200,000 cluster munitions. Around 10,800 minefields have been cleared and 87,316 acres have been made safe from landmines, with another 361,956 acres made safe from unexploded and abandoned ordnance.