June 2009 Newsletter

Contents

• Introduction
• Flemish Development Co-orporation Awards APOPO €1.199.858 grant
for demining in Mozambique
• APOPO named finalist in Lien i3 Challenge
• Tuberculosis detection: Fact-finding mission to South Africa
• Meet the Chemist: Negussie Beyene
• REST explained by Neguessie Beyene
• A Welcome and a Thank You
• Support APOPO’s work

As summer and warm temperatures approach, we hope that everything is

well! In Tanzania, we are moving into our cooler time of the year after the
rains have stopped. Our HeroRATs continue to detect and train to create a
better world for us all! In May, two rats passed their final training test in
landmine detection.

In this newsletter, you will find an exciting announcement: a grant from the
Flemish Development Corporation for demining of the Gaza Province of
Mozambique. The Flemish Development Co-operation officially announced
the grant in mid-May. These funds will be instrumental in APOPO’s demining
operations in the region.

As well as this, APOPO has also been named a finalist in the Lien i3 Challenge
for innovative responses for social issues. APOPO also went on a fact-finding
mission to research the possibilities for expanding the activities of APOPO
into Cape Town. See more about the Lien i3 Challenge and the fact-finding
mission later on in the newsletter.

You can also learn more about our chemist Negussie Beyene, and see his
explanation of the REST project that will help us to clear more land more
quickly.

We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter! We look forward to working with
you in the future!

Best wishes for June!

Flemish Government Awards APOPO €1.199.858 grant for

demining in Mozambique

In May, the Flemish Development co-operation, under the guidance of Kris

Peeters, the Flemish Minister President, approved a €1,199,858 grant for
APOPO’s demining operations in Mozambique. The funds from this grant are
for the demining of the Gaza Province of Mozambique. The total area that will
be demined by APOPO in the Gaza Province is 3.8 square Kilometers. This
generous grant will make our demining work possible in this province.

The Government of Flanders has supported APOPO’s demining activities in

Mozambique since 2003, and they have committed to provide financial
support until 2013 with the decision to grant these funds to APOPO. With the
new financial commitment to support the Mine Action Plan 2009-2013, the
Government of Flanders has reconfirmed the importance of humanitarian
demining for the development of Mozambique.

The Flemish Development co-operation has committed itself to contribute to

the Millennium Development Goals. It works to do this through several main
aims, including; “to cooperate with its partner countries in order to reduce
poverty, to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable groups within
their population and to guarantee their right for development; to contribute to
awareness raising and sensitization of the Flemish public; to strive for policy
coherence within the Flemish government on matters related to the
international agenda.”
The Flemish Government granted these funds to APOPO due to APOPO’s
inexpensive and efficient demining process, and APOPO’s international
reputation of being an important demining organization in East Africa.
Mozambique is also one of the three partner countries of Flanders, which
makes APOPO’s demining work an important aspect in the partnership
between the countries.

APOPO named finalist in Lien i3 Challenge

APOPO was announced as a finalist in the Lien i3 Challenge. The challenge

aims to catalyze socially based projects that are innovative, implementable
and impactful in Singapore and Asia. The challenge is organized by The Lien
Centre for Social Innovation at the Singapore Management University and has
a possible one million Singapore dollars (700,000 USD) for the most
innovative and sustainable ideas that they receive.

APOPO applied to the challenge to train and facilitate Thai nationals to learn
to implement the HeroRAT technology in their own country. If APOPO
receives a portion of the funds, APOPO would organize a HeroRAT training
course at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, Africa. A selected
group of Thai nationals will follow the course, and return to Thailand with
their animals, to form a HeroRAT capacity in support of humanitarian mine
action co-ordinated by the Thai Mine Action Center (TMAC). APOPO will
support the project in Thailand with provision of Tanzanian training
instructors for 3 years. If successful, the TMAC can evolve into a regional
center, from where the HeroRAT technology can be further disseminated to
other South-East Asian governmental and non-governmental mine action
organizations.

After further idea development, the winners of the challenge will be

announced in October of 2009 and implementation would be possible starting
later that month. We hope to have good news for you in the future about the
Lien i3 Challenge!

Tuberculosis detection: Fact-finding mission to South Africa

Last week, Christophe Cox, APOPO's CEO, and Renaud de Hemptinne,

volunteer consultant in health economics, traveled to Cape Town, South
Africa. The main purpose of their visit was to research the possibilities for
expanding the activities of APOPO into Cape Town. The team was on a fact-
finding mission to determine the relevance and possibility of using rats to
detect Tuberculosis in this metropolitan area.

Cape Town has a high infection rate for Tuberculosis and HeroRATs' quick
detection could have a huge impact on the local community. APOPO hopes to
set up facilities to further research and analyze rat detection of Tuberculosis in
Cape Town. The next step will be to develop a more precise research
framework and objectives for APOPO’s work in the Tuberculosis detection
sector in Cape Town. APOPO could gain strongly from the excellent research
capacities and expertise in the field of TB research in Cape Town, such as the
Desmond TUTU research group at the University of Cape Town and the
National Health Laboratory Services.

To learn more about the visit, read this article from West Cape News.

Meet the Chemist: Negussie Beyene

Negussie Wodajo Beyene, 38, is a research chemist for APOPO. He has been
seconded to APOPO by the GICHD since December of 2007 researching the
REST (Remote Explosive Scent Tracing) program. Beyene, a native Ethiopian
from Addis Ababa, received a Bachelor of Science and Masters of Science from
Addis Ababa University and then a PhD from Karl Franzens University in
Austria. He then worked as an assistant professor at Addis Ababa University
before joining the APOPO team. Negussie Beyene’s work for APOPO is funded
by the generous support of the GICHD (Geneva International Centre for
Humanitarian Demining), and we are grateful to have him on the team thanks
to their support.

Negussie Beyene has been researching how to demine more effectively and
cover the most land as quickly as possible with ensured quality through a
technique called Remote Explosive Scent Tracing (REST). Negussie Beyene is
currently researching to find the optimal environmental conditions for
collection of samples for the REST project. Some conditions being considered
are different types of soil, soil moisture content, soil temperature, type of
landmine, and the depth at which landmine is buried. Negussie Beyene hopes
to see rat detection technology being extrapolated into other areas such as
cancer detection.

Beyene is married and has an eleven-month old baby girl named Heirmela.
His wife, Rediet, and his daughter now live with him in Morogoro, Tanzania.
They enjoy taking family walks on Sunday mornings to see more of the
surrounding mountains and villages. Since his daughter is starting to become
more active, both Beyene and his wife love to spend time with Heirmela and
take care of her. Negussie Beyene also loves to read science fiction; his favorite
writer is Robin Cook. He is the proud owner of 19 of Cook’s books. He also
enjoys cooking traditional Ethiopian, Mediterranean, Indian and Chinese
food- anything with spices!

Remote Explosive Scent Tracing (REST) explained by Negussie

Beyene

In conventional animal detection, we train, get accreditation, and take the

animals out to the field for detection. There are environmental factors that
affect the performance of the animals, and depending on the suspected area
there might be scenarios in which animals are more effective in a lab setting
than in the field. To provide better understanding of these potentially limiting
factors and to provide and alternative for those situations when field-work is
not the best approach, the technique of REST has been considered.

In simple terms, REST implies that instead of taking the animals to the field,
environmental samples (made of air, dust and soil above buried landmines)
are collected and brought to the lab where the animals can screen them in a
controlled setting. Samples are collected from certain suspected areas, for
example every 100 square meters, and presented to the animals. If the
animals don’t detect any explosive compound, these suspected areas could
easily be released for human activity. That means that with REST swift area
release is possible and the animals’ skills are optimized in times when
detection is best from afar.

A Welcome and Thank You

As many of you know our HeroRAT adoption program is largely volunteer

run. The HeroRATs program has had the great fortune to work with Whitney
Burton, a Sophomore at George Mason University and a founding member of
the Ashoka Campus Changemaker Program at George Mason, since January.
Whitney's time with us is wrapping up and June will be the close of her time
with us in Tanzania. We wanted to thank her for all her hours of hard work
and dedication to grow the program and to keep you up to date. Kara Schnoes
will join us in August to pick up where Whitney left off and we look forward to
welcoming her to the team.

Whitney, you have been a joy to work with a tremendous asset to APOPO. You
will be deeply missed but we hope you keep in touch and we wish you the best
with your travels and studies. Tutaonana (until we meet again)!

Support APOPO’s Work

APOPO’s staff and HeroRATs are working hard to save lives and limbs from
disaster and disease. For information about the work we are doing, or to
contribute to the HeroRATs cause, please visit www.herorat.org.