AMERICAN GIVING | Strengthening communities through generosity
26 February 2008
Famed Singer Mary Wilson Works To Eliminate Land Mines
Former member of the Supremes visited Sri Lanka, Laos to raise awareness
Washington -- In the 1960s and 1970s, she was a member of the singing group the Supremes, one of most popular groups of the era that highlighted the vocal talents of African-American women.
Today, she still travels the United States, performing jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and popular songs as a solo artist.
And when she is not touring, she devotes a large amount of her time to efforts to clear deadly, maiming land mines that still remain in the soil of countries affected by conflict.
"After a while, how many [performance] trophies can you have on the wall? … It's important to do something you know is meaningful," Mary Wilson told America.gov in February.
In late 2007, Wilson traveled to Sri Lanka and Laos with the New York-based, nonprofit Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI), where a friend of hers was working. She sought to raise awareness of the continued scourge of land mines and unexploded ordnance and promote efforts to collect and demolish these weapons.
Serving as an HDI spokesperson in Sri Lanka, Wilson talked to local representatives of the group's partners -- the Britain-based HALO Trust, a charity that also works for removal of the debris of war, and the Minnesota-based Land O'Lakes company about its complementary work in school feeding programs.
With these partners, HDI is implementing a two-year, $4 million U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food for Progress project in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna Peninsula to clear mines on dairy farmland and to redevelop the dairy and livestock industry.
In Akarawitta, a village near the capital, Colombo, Wilson staged a concert to raise money for the Association of Disabled Ex-Service Personnel (ADEP) and the Jaffna Jaipur Centre for Disability Rehabilitation. Akarawitta was chosen by the Sri Lankan government to be a hub for surviving victims of land mines and their dependents.
Wilson performed with her band from the United States and with singer Nauman Khan Lasharie from Pakistan. She met Lasharie during her 2004 visit to Islamabad, Pakistan, as a U.S. State Department cultural ambassador.
HDI also has received a $2.93 million Food for Education grant from USDA for use in Laos, where more bombs have fallen per square kilometer than in any other country. It is the first initiative in Laos and the first to combine unexploded ordnance clearing and school feeding with the goal of increasing school attendance.
HDI's partners on this project are the British-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and Virginia-based International Relief and Development.
Wilson visited Khammouane province in Laos, where she saw how HDI is helping children by providing conditions for increased school enrollment and attendance, especially by girls. HDI also works to improve literacy and educational achievement and create healthier children and families.
In Phonsavanh, Laos, Wilson helped women prepare a soybean and cornmeal mix that could be used as a midmorning snack to keep the children alert. In the village of Phonsead, she ate with the children and heard firsthand from them how HDI's mine clearance program has allowed them to return safely to school. Finally, in the village of Muangkhai, Wilson observed how MAG had found more than two tons of explosives on grounds adjoining the school.
She then went to an open range and pressed a button, which detonated the explosives.
Wilson also participated in planting fruit trees that can be a long-term source of nutritious food for children at participating schools.
"It was so wonderful to see how happy they were to have these trees. HDI likes to help people help themselves," Wilson said.
HDI is also working in Vietnam and recently completed projects in Angola, Armenia, Eritrea, Lebanon and Mozambique.
