Teaching people to recognise what will kill them later

After ceasefires and before reconstruction, the deadliest objects are often small, rusted and buried in fields children use as playgrounds. Explosive ordnance risk education is the humanitarian sector's name for teaching people what not to touch, where not to walk, and which number to call — knowing the number may not work and the clearance queue is years long.

Under international humanitarian law, parties to conflict bear responsibility for mine use restrictions and clearance obligations. In practice, humanitarian EORE fills the gap when state capacity collapses and contamination outpaces demining resources.

EORE is not clearance

Who needs which messages

• Children: curious handling of shiny objects; integrate into schools and child-friendly spaces.
• Adolescent boys: highest risk group for tampering and scrap collection.
• Farmers and herders: need route planning and safe reporting without losing livelihood season.
• Returnees: may remember pre-war safe paths that are now contaminated.
• Humanitarian workers: convoy routes and warehouse sites need survey before use.
• Healthcare staff: recognise blast injuries and referral for psychosocial support.

Delivery methods that scale

Face-to-face sessions in villages, teacher training with curriculum integration, radio dramas, SMS where networks exist, and community liaison officers embedded with return programmes. Repetition matters: one-off assemblies are forgotten under stress.

Global casualty trend

Majority civilians; children disproportionate

EORE cost vs clearance

Orders of magnitude cheaper per person reached

Clearance backlog

Often decades in heavily contaminated states

Reporting hotline utility

Depends on linked clearance capacity

We marked the field and the farmer ploughed anyway because the alternative was no harvest. EORE without livelihood support is a lecture, not a programme.

Mine action community liaison officer

Message content that saves lives

Effective EORE messages stay short and actionable: do not touch unfamiliar metal objects; do not dig in marked or suspected areas; report location to the hotline; keep children away from blast sites; do not attempt to open or burn ordnance for scrap. Messages avoid technical jargon and use locally understood landmarks rather than grid references alone.

EORE and education in emergencies

INEE and mine action clusters coordinate to embed EORE in temporary learning spaces — especially where schools occupy previously unused land or when children walk new routes to class. Education cannot restart safely without contamination assessment of sites and routes.

1. Survey school site and access paths before opening TLS.
2. Train teachers as EORE facilitators with mine action supervision.
3. Use age-banded curricula — games for young children, factual for adolescents.
4. Link reporting mechanisms to national mine action centre where functional.
5. Refresh messages after seasonal return or new contamination events.

HopePassage and mine action

HopePassage funds civilian protection including EORE implemented by accredited partners. Crypto disbursements can support radio campaigns, facilitator stipends or printing — never ordnance handling.

1. Confirm partner accreditation for any clearance claimsEORE organisations are not demining units unless separately accredited.
2. Ask for reach and recall dataPeople 'reached' is weak; knowledge retention surveys are stronger.
3. Ask linkage to survey dataEORE should align with known hazardous area maps.