Front page article in The Washington Post By Kevin Sieff KABUL — As the U.S. military withdraws from Afghanistan, it is leaving behind a deadly legacy: about 800 square miles of land littered with undetonated grenades, rockets and mortar shells. The military has vacated scores of firing ranges pocked with the explosives. Dozens of children have been killed or wounded as they have stumbled upon the ordnance at the sites, which are often poorly marked. Casualties are likely to increase sharply; the U.S. military has removed the munitions from only 3 percent of the territory covered by its sprawling ranges,…

A short film by documentarian Marco Grob and narrated by Daniel Craig follows “Douglas”, a UNMAS demining technician in Mali, who risks his life day in and day out in an effort to uncover and dispose of “the leftover detritus of war”.

The State Journal, West Virginia’s Business Newspaper, recently published a feature about the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative (SHDI): Small Kearneysville company recognized for big donations Posted: Mar 07, 2014 2:59 PM EST By Linda Harris, Legal Reporter There are days when Bob Ebberson and his co-workers at Schonstedt Instrument Co. must feel a little like David battling Goliath. Small by any standards — there are just 25 employees in the company — Kearneysville-based Schonstedt is trying to make the world just a little bit safer by donating hand-held magnetic locators to people in war-torn world communities to help them find…

The legacy of thirty years of conflict has left communities in Afghanistan facing many problems. One of the great challenges the country faces is ridding itself of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and stray ammunition (SA) that lies hidden, scattered across the whole country. Many of these items have lain dormant for many years waiting to injure unsuspecting civilians who unearth them when tending to their land or used by insurgents to destabilize the country and work against the GoIRA and its people. The donation of 12 x Schonstedt GA-72Cd magnetic locators has been greatly received by the Mine Action Programme for…

The Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative (SHDI) continues to support the United Nations Mine Action Service in its efforts to eradicate explosive remnants of war from countries around the world. In recognition, and in addition to a permanent display of a Schonstedt demining tool at the United Nations, a second unit is now featured in a recently opened exhibition in the Visitor’s Center at UN Headquarters in New York.