In the extremely poor, rural areas in Mozambique where Handicap International works, people with disabilities often leave school very early and fail to find employment. Others, disabled by accidents with landmines in the formerly war-torn country, lost their ability to perform physically intensive work like farming. A new Handicap International project is changing that, by helping put people with disabilities into the workforce. 

Mozambique was declared free of landmines in September 2015. Handicap International played a leading role there since launching its demining efforts in 1998. Deminers have since cleared more than 16 million square meters of land, neutralized 6,000 antipersonnel mines and 5,000 unexploded remnants of war. Grégory Le Blanc, Handicap International’s Head of Mission in the country, explains the benefits of this demining for the people of Mozambique who, until very recently, lived under the constant threat of mines.