Landmine Clearance
28 November 2011
Every month, around the world, over 2,000 people are killed or maimed by landmine explosions and there are estimated to be hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of buried mines in some 70 countries around the world
Unexploded remnants of war not only inflict physical harm on the people trying to live in post-conflict areas, but they also prevent valuable land from being used for construction, agriculture or grazing.
G4S has extensive experience in landmine clearance around the world. G4S Ordnance Management has been clearing unexploded ordnance (UXO) for over two decades and more than 1.7 billion square meters of land has been returned to communities for productive use.
In 2010, G4S Risk Management was awarded a contract by one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies, to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance.
Nedim Hodo– whose de-mining activities with G4S have taken him to Croatia, Serbia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Mozambique, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq – has lost count of how many landmines he has dealt with over the years. “It’s not something you count,” he explains.
What began as a job that made good use of his knowledge of Bosnia’s minefields and provided him with an income has developed into an international career in which Nedim is acknowledged as one of G4S’s most experienced operations managers.
Currently a project operations manager responsible for some of G4S’s de-mining operations in Iraq, Nedim is based in Basra province, where the purpose is commercial rather than humanitarian.
“The business is now in my blood,” he says. “You live with it. And from a humanitarian point of view we are doing a very good job, for the people, for the children, worldwide.” “But it’s not easy, of course, because your family misses you and your private life is affected. It is however, very satisfying to look at some of the work we have done and to see the benefits we have brought to communities, who can now farm and keep animals on land that was previously too dangerous to use.”
To find out more about how G4S colleagues are making a difference view the full story in our CSR Report.
If you would like to work for G4S visit our Global Careers Centre.
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About G4S
G4S is the world's leading security solutions group, which specialises in outsourcing of business processes in sectors where security and safety risks are considered a strategic threat. G4S is the largest employer quoted on the London Stock Exchange and has a secondary stock exchange listing in Copenhagen. G4S has operations in more than 125 countries and more than 635,000 employees. For more information on G4S, visit www.g4s.com.