Three People Making a Difference

03 May 2010

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week on our program, we tell you about three people who are working to make a difference in the world.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Heidi Kuhn lives in the San Francisco Bay area in California. She decided to do something special with her life after she was successfully treated for cancer. In nineteen ninety-seven, she started an organization to continue Princess Diana’s work to rid the world of landmines. Roots of Peace does more than help clear landmines. It also works to return the land to agricultural use.

Heidi Kuhn

Heidi Kuhn says landmines must be removed from the earth just as cancer is removed from the body. She began her organization with the idea of changing "mines into vines." The symbol for her group is a grapevine, which can represent a symbol of peace.

BOB DOUGHTY: Her Web site says more than seventy countries have about seventy million buried landmines. Each year they injure or kill about twenty-six thousand people.

Roots of Peace says a landmine costs anywhere from three to thirty dollars to produce and place in the ground. But the cost to remove one of the bombs is about one thousand dollars. Metal detectors cannot be used in many cases because landmines can be made of non-metal materials.