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OAS Hosts Exhibit, “Vidas Minadas,” by the Spanish Photographer Gervasio Sánchez

The Permanent Observer Mission of Spain to the Organization of American States (OAS) will inaugurate this Wednesday, November 17, at 17:30 EST (22:30 GMT) the exhibit, “Vidas Minadas,” by the Spanish photographer Gervasio Sánchez, in the hemispheric Organization’s Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC.

The display gathers some one hundred of Sánchez’s photographs from 1997 to the present, and has for its objective to sensitize the public about how anti-personnel mines affect innocent people and to send a positive message about how the victims recover despite their injuries. The inauguration will be attended by Gervasio Sánchez and Manuel Orellana, a victim of such devices. The exhibit will be open to the public from November 18, 2010, to January 2, 2011.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, said that “a large majority of those affected by anti-personnel mines are citizens who have not participated at all in the conflicts in which such deadly devices are used.” He added that “women and children, the young and old, face every day the dangers posed by this silent enemy, which mutilates the body and destroys the lives of so many innocent people.”

He also made a call to all countries in the hemisphere to “redouble their efforts to raise public awareness about such dangers in areas affected by mines,” and reiterated the commitment of the Organization to “continue, along with the donor community and the Member States of our Organization, our efforts to make the Americas free of this threat, so that our children may live in a world without fear.”

The OAS, with the technical support of the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB), created in 1991 an initial assistance program on humanitarian demining in response to requests from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala. Subsequently, the Program of Integral Action against Anti-personnel Mines (AICMA) was born. Humanitarian in character, the program seeks to create safe living conditions, the recovery of affected lands for productive activities, and to provide assistance in the physical and psychological rehabilitation of victims. As of today, AICMA has helped more than 1.250 mine survivors. The Program’s services recently were expanded to support the demining of Suriname, to begin activities in Chile, and to continue to support Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.

In the year 2010, with the conclusion of demining activities in Nicaragua, Central America was successfully declared free of antipersonnel mines.

WHAT: Inauguration of the exhibit “Vidas Minadas Diez Años” (“Mined Lives Ten Years”)

WHEN: November 17, 17:30 EST (22:30 GMT)

WHERE: Museum of the Americas

201 18th St, NW

Washington, DC 20006

Reference: AVI-293/10