TYRE, LEBANON, April 3 (ChinaMil) -- April 4 is the International Day for Landmine Awareness sponsored by the United Nations. The 16th Chinese peacekeeping detachment to Lebanon recently organized an activity of teaching local children how to prevent landmine injuries.
Forty seven teachers and students from a local school in Tyre City of Lebanon were invited to the activity. With Chinese peacekeepers' help, they understood the harm landmines cause and enhanced landmine prevention awareness by studying landmine knowledge, watching minesweeping photo exhibition and tasting minesweeping process.
Wang Qiang, a Chinese minesweeping staff officer, used physical objects to introduce landmine knowledge to teachers and students for more intuitive experience. He also disassembled a landmine model and explained its structure and explosion principles. Wang also introduced stories of how Chinese peacekeepers in Lebanon risk their lives sweeping landmines.
A Lebanese teacher expressed his heart-felt thanks to all Chinese peacekeepers, saying that China came to Lebanon for peace and Chinese peacekeepers risked their lives to protect people in Lebanon.
A Lebanese student said that he learned how to observe landmines and protect himself from this activity. "When I grow up, I hope to maintain world peace like the Chinese peacekeepers," added the student.
China has sent 16 detachments of peacekeeping troops to Lebanon since 2006. Over the past years, Chinese peacekeepers have discovered and disposed of more than 10,000 various types of landmines and unexploded ordnances, winning high remarks from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the people of southern Lebanon.