Sri Lankan Women War Survivors Work As De-Miners After The Civil Conflict

MUHAMALAI, SRI LANKA - MARCH 2: Navirethan Sujitha works as a task commander for HALO Trust at Muhamalai, one of the biggest minefields in the world, on March 2, 2019 in Muhamalai, Sri Lanka. In 2009 Sujitha's village, Uruthirapuram village, was heavily shelled and she the military moved in and took her and her family to a camp. Her husband was not home at that time and is presumed dead. After more than a year she was allowed to return home. She joined HALO Trust in 2010 and her first job was to clear landmines from her own village. She is the sole breadwinner of her family and her salary supports her, her mother, daughter and niece. As the 10 year anniversary of the Sri Lankan Civil War approaches, de-mining continues across the north of the country. At the HALO Trust, one of the NGOs working to remove mines in the north, 44% of their staff working in the minefields are female, of which 62% are the primary breadwinners of their family, and 37% have had relatives who were injured, killed, or went missing during the civil war. As of 31st January 2019, HALO Sri Lanka has cleared 309,354 mines and unexploded ordnance in Sri Lanka. The war was fought from 1983 until 2009 between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fought to create an independent Tamil state, and the Sri Lankan military. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)