smac

SMAC (Somalia Mine Awareness Campaign)

"Of all the tasks involved in setting a nation on a new road to peace and prosperity, perhaps non has the immediate urgency of mine clearance.... No attempt to restore a sense of community and security can succeed without effective land-mine removal."
Boutros Boutros Ghali, UN Secretary General Report on the Work of the Organization, September 1993

An estimated 1 million mines are burried under the soil of Somalia waiting to kill or maim with deadly precision any individual, soldier or civilian, who will tread on them. The problem is acute in N.W. Somalia and in the Gedo Region.

UNESCO and UNHCR N.W. Somalia signed an agreement dated December 11, 1993 which calls for the launching of a country-wide Somalia Mine Awareness Campaign (SMAC) in the formal and non-formal education sectors.

The production of the campaign materials in Somali which was entrusted to UNESCO EDC in Mogadishu in nearing completion. They consist of:

Two cloth posters, one describing the mine more commonly found in Somalia and the other containing instructions on what to do and what not to do when one spots a mine or a suspicious looking object.
Two lessions based on the posters for use by instructors.
Also, for instructor Three mine awareness games which students can play.
A pictorial pamphlet that sums up mine-related instructions that students carry away with them.

The posters are also printed on paper for public display in police stations, public buildings etc.

The SMAC materials was produced by UNESCO-Somalia with the assistance and under the technical supervision of the De-mining Unit of UNOSOMIII division and VIII Psychological Operations Battalion, US Army.

As part of UNESCO-Somalia's "Education for Peace" effort, the mine awareness material will get a wide distribution.

This information is from Rehabilitating Somalia's Education Sector: The role of UNESCO written by Gonzalo Retamal and M. Devadoss at Mogadishu in February 1994.