Jamba Besta is a part of a six-member all-female team of Sudanese women working to clear mines in wake of the north-south war in Sudan. The women work for the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to clear mines and rebuild a school that was demolished during the war. This is the first all-female team established in Sudan for the purpose of clearing out mines. The de-mining process is complicated and dangerous as locating the mine’s is hard and has lead to many unnecessary injuries and fatalities. Much to the chagrin of many men who do similar work, one woman explains that the team “support[s] each other against often critical comments that de-mining is work only for a man.” The women work diligently to rebuild their communities and represent the important roles women can play to create solidarity, separately from men.

Other all-female teams work for NPA in Cambodia, Kosovo, etc. The NPA’s program manager, Kjell Ivar Breili says that “NPA’s two female teams have recently beaten several of the six male teams in terms of the numbers of mines cleared.’ The women do a great job – and we don’t have problems of fighting or drinking,’.” In these countries, women have been subjugated for years and exploited in their duties, yet their work in the de-mining efforts has proven to civilians that women can do the same work as men, and often in a more timely fashion.

Sources: “The Women who clear Sudan’s Minefields” – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8161199.stm,