Post by Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD)

"In 2012, when the revolution began, it quickly escalated to an armed conflict. I had no choice but to flee with my family from the Al-Jazeera region, where I worked for a Syrian oil transport company, to Turkey. When we returned, things had deteriorated, so we moved again to a village near the mountainous Darkoush. One day, an air bomb cut off the roads to the area, leaving only one road for us to get necessities, like a loaf of bread. The region had absolutely nothing; no firefighting, no search and rescue, no awareness or safety programs. I met with others to find solutions, and we decided to form a small mine action unit. With two friends, we started volunteering. We made brochures about the dangerous explosive ordnance, reaching out to schools to conduct awareness campaigns, and reaching out to get training from outside of Syria. We continued for three years, then eventually we got some support and could buy a car, print more brochures and visit more schools and community areas. People were desperate, blocked roads, and lives at risk, just trying to survive. It was a very hard period because we had no support. It even caused tension at home, we needed to eat and drink, while all my time was devoted to this volunteer work. I stepped away for a year because of my family responsibilities. I have two children, and in those conditions, bread was not guaranteed. While I supported my family by working in trade for a while, with a business selling bracelets made by my wife, the situation did not improve. However, the friend I had started this action with — Raed Al Saleh who is now Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management — kept up the operations, expanding the volunteer work into a more structured civil defense effort, including landmine and other explosive ordnance removal. He asked me to come back, and things grew from there..." Read more from Fadi Al Saleh, head of the Syrian Mine Action Center, under the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management. While participating in our Mine Action Managers Training in Damascus in January 2026, Fadi took the time to tell us his story about how he went from running a small local mine action operation to leading mine action operations for Syria. Get the full story here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e96cUMmu