This article appeared in the February 2008 issue of Professional Surveyor Magazine and is displayed with permission. Copyright 2008 by Reed Business Geo, Inc. Frank Lenik, LS was the right man in the right place last March, when he spotted the Schonstedt Instrument Company booth at the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping conference in St. Louis, Missouri. A banner at the booth said, “Buy a locator, save a life,” … Download Article in PDF format http://www.profsurv.com
The Philadelphia Inquirer By Edward Colimore – Inquirer Staff Writer Tajikistan, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, is still feeling the aftereffects of a civil war that killed more than 50,000 people a decade ago. Trenches and earthen fortifications scar the high ground overlooking the Rasht Valley, and unexploded cluster bombs are claiming lives – often those of children who pick up the softball-size munitions. Thousands of miles away, in Woodstown, Salem County, Frank Lenik, a Quaker and former Peace Corps volunteer, knew of the plight of the people there and wanted to help. In his work as a surveyor, Lenik uses…
The U.S. Department of State presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Schonstedt Instrument Company for “its valuable contributions in the effort to make the world free from the humanitarian impact of landmines and explosive remnants of war, in partnership with the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, so that innocent civilians may once again ‘walk the earth in safety’.” The honor was awarded in commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the U.S. Department of State’s Public-Private Partnership Program to reinforce Humanitarian Mine Action.
Habitat for Humanity St. Tammany West has completed nearly 70 new homes in an area north of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, and has a construction schedule for 100 more in the next two years. Responding to a need for a magnetic locator to help with the initial surveying of the building sites, Schonstedt has donated a GA-52Cx. According to James Sims, Phase I Construction Supervisor, the Schonstedt instrument “…will save Habitat hundreds of dollars in surveying costs because we will now be able to do the work ourselves without delay. This tool will definitely speed up the process on…
First Secretary Bounnhang Keosavang, Embassy of Laos, Washington, DC accepts a donation of 15 GA-72Cd magnetic locators from Michael B. Head, President, Schonstedt Instrument Company. The instruments will be used to find and clear cluster munitions in one of the world’s most contaminated countries. Also present for the occasion were Max Gaylard, Director, United Nations Mine Action Service, as well as dignitaries from the U.S. Department of State, the offices of U.S. Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, U.S. Representative Capito and West Virginia Governor Manchin. The ceremony underscored Schonstedt’s open-ended commitment of free tools for global humanitarian demining.
Schonstedt Instrument Company recently teamed with the U.S. Department of State to provide demining tools to underserved areas of the world. The donated equipment is made possible by – and in the name of – Schonstedt customers, nonprofit organizations and individual donors. United Nations humanitarian demining teams are currently using the donated equipment in Laos, Somalia, Kenya and Tajikistan. There, on a daily basis, they find and clear explosive remnants of war such as cluster bombs, grenades, mortars, shells and landmines.
This picture shows Schull mountain with the settlement nestling at its base. During the war, the mountains all along the Rasht Valley were cluster bombed with ShOAB and AO submunitions. The aluminum alloy casing of a ShOAB is visible on the right, and the rusted steel of an AO on the left. The town of Gharm in the Rasht Valley, central Tajikistan, is surrounded by steep hills and snow-capped mountains. During the civil war, some places on the high ground were defended with earthworks and trenches, the remains of which are still visible. These were mined defensively. Reports suggest that…
Tackling Tajikistan’s cluster bombs By Natalia Antelava BBC News, Rashd Valley, Tajikistan High above the mulberry orchards and rolling hills of the Rashd Valley, and just beneath the soaring snow-covered peaks, lies the village of Chor Charokh. Donkeys wander amid the mud huts, and women in traditional colourful headscarves shy away from visitors. A group of small children, happily oblivious to the poverty that surrounds them, scream and laugh as they chase a dog along a stream. None of these children were born when the government and the opposition fought for control of these mountains. Yet, in a way, for…
