| Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC December 21, 2007 Grapes for Humanity, U.S., Inc. Raises Funds to Aid Landmine Survivors in Colombia and NicaraguaThe Department of State salutes Grapes for Humanity U.S., Inc., a not-for-profit charitable foundation, for recently raising $200,000 for conflict-related humanitarian relief around the world. Of this amount, $50,000 will be used to help rehabilitate survivors of landmines and other explosive devices in Colombia and Nicaragua. The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs will match this $50,000, enabling a total of $100,000 in public-private funds to be directed to the Polus Center for Social and Economic Development’s Coffeelands Landmine Victim’s Trust (www.poluscenter.org and www.coffeelandstrust.org) to assist coffee farmers in Colombia and Nicaragua who have been injured by landmines and improvised explosive devices.
The funds were raised at a dinner in New York City honoring Corinne Mentzelopoulos, owner of Château Margaux, who donated some of her finest vintages for the event, which also featured fine wines from Château d' Yquem, secured by Grapes for Humanity Honorary Director Jean-Guillaume Prats of Cos d'Estournel, and champagne from Dom Pérignon. Grapes for Humanity (www.grapesforhumanity.com) seeks to improve the lives of survivors of landmines and other conflict-related accidents and disasters. Through fundraising events centered on the tasting of fine wines, Grapes for Humanity, in cooperation with humanitarian mine action and humanitarian assistance organizations such as the Polus Center, has helped to support the rehabilitation of conflict survivors in Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Laos, Nicaragua, Uganda, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. Grapes for Humanity and the Polus Center are two of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement’s 61 public-private partners that support humanitarian mine action (mine clearance, mine risk education, mine survivors assistance). The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement manages mine action programs in 30 countries around the world (including Colombia and Nicaragua), encourages Public-Private partnerships to support mine action, and helps to stem illicit trafficking in small arms, light weapons, and Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS). The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement’s bilateral and multilateral mine action programs, reinforced by the generous contributions of its public-private partners and their supporters, have contributed to the worldwide rate of landmine casualties dropping from about 26,000 annually four years ago, to a little over 3,000 per year, and have restored valuable land to safe, productive use. To learn more, visit www.state.gov/t/pm/wra. 2007/1154 |
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