At LandMine Design, we believe in and lead to sustainability. We set out to equip women to be self-sustaining through employment and education initiatives and do our best to never implement things that would foster dependence. Our dream is to raise up women today who will raise up the generation of tomorrow. We believe to arm women with education is to be a dangerous catalyst challenging and destructing the cycle of poverty. For these reasons, the women of Landmine Design are educated weekly in the areas of health and hygiene, financial management, literacy, English, and spiritual development.
I won’t soon forget the gripping response of a young woman in our program named Srey Pov when posed with the question “What is important to you?” Srey Pov quietly responded, “Education is the most important thing I have, it’s the only thing in my life no one can take from me.” This quote from a woman I love struck me deeply and continues to. You see, these women are used to suffering, lack of opportunity, devastation, and distrust due to deep vulnerabilities present within their lives. To suffer and to fear is their norm. To live with almost nothing yet possess great fear for the day it will be taken, is their reality.
"Education is the most important thing I have, it's the only thing in my life no one can take from me."
Education, now accessible to these once vulnerable women, is invaluable. Women, living with so few belongings and little financial value may now have the opportunity to write a new story of great value - one of dignity, self worth, and confidence through education.
As I reflect on this reality, much like most of our work, I’m overcome with feelings of utter heartbreak and celebration all at once. I’m heartbroken for the mother of five in her mid 30’s who prior to her employment had never read or written a word in her life, yet I celebrate her opportunity to do so today. I’m heartbroken for the stories of young girls running to neighboring Thailand in search of work, yet I celebrate the new story of opportunity we’re writing and making examples of through education today. I’m heartbroken for the mother of four who has only known survival and watched her kids grow hungry due to lack of income, yet I celebrate her opportunity to learn english and dream of new ways she’ll provide for her children.
I’ve seen first hand the benefits of education in the lives of these young women and mothers, I’ve seen its ability to transform lives, families, birth hope, and restore confidence in oneself. I feel the heartache deeply yet I celebrate and believe in the victories far more.
Today, The MineField Village houses a school through 3rd grade, yet the reality is, 3rd grade is not good enough. The children of the mothers of Landmine Design deserve more than the reality their mothers lived. They deserve more than vulnerability; they deserve more than desperation; and they deserve more options than their current state of poverty tells them they may have. We’re coming against these children’s state of poverty because we believe to arm an individual in education is to be dangerously fatal to the cycle of poverty. We believe in providing these children, just like we do their mother’s, the one thing no one may take from them.
We’re asking you to donate now if you believe in the power of education, in the power of equipping these children with the most valuable asset they may possess to write a brighter future, to equip them with the one thing no one may take from them amidst a life where robbery is their norm.