Summit at UCI Brings Home the Battle Against Landmines

The stories and pictures are haunting: The little Croatian girl lost her leg when she stepped on a landmine. The small backyard is as far as the boy in Kosovo can venture -- beyond the gated area, the deadly leftovers of war make further adventure too risky. For the young Vietnamese boy, one ill-fated step took most of his legs, his arm and the sight in an eye.

Heather Mills McCartney hopes the images chronicling the devastation caused by landmines will motivate the nearly 200 people at the Human Security Summit held Wednesday at UC Irvine to take action.

In recognition of her decade-long commitment to removing landmines, Chancellor Ralph Cicerone announced Wednesday the creation of the Heather Mills McCartney Fellowship in Human Security.

Though details have yet to be finalized, the university hopes to begin with one $25,000 fellowship for a graduate student of the UCI Center for Unconventional Security Affairs.

The center researches solutions to nonmilitary security issues that cripple communities financially and physically, including infectious diseases, environmental threats, cyber attacks and landmines.

The devices are a “horrifying weapon. They take an enormous toll on the ordinary citizens, who are their primary targets,” said Richard Matthew, the center’s director.

Landmines are usually hidden and detonate when stepped on.

Accurate statistics are difficult to compile, but Adopt-a-Minefield -- the global organization that works on landmine removal and survivor outreach -- estimates that there are 70 million of them in 90 countries. Some 19,000 people die each year from landmine-related accidents.

After McCartney lost a leg in 1993 following a car accident, she began her work to remove landmines and ban their use.

When she noticed doctors were throwing away her old -- and expensive -- prosthetic legs, she realized that hers and others’ could be reused elsewhere.

Along with her husband, Paul McCartney, she joined Adopt-a-Minefield in 2000.

She visits such countries as Cambodia, Croatia, Kosovo and Vietnam to meet with survivors, train them to make prostheses and distribute donated devices.

On McCartney’s first trip abroad, to Croatia, she met Martina, an 8-year-old with one leg.

With a new prosthetic leg, “I will be able to play and ride a bike with my brother,” Martina says in the video.

Clad in pink and white sneakers, Martina takes her first timid steps with the new prosthetic leg.

The effort drew a delighted smile from her and sniffles from some of the summit attendees -- academics, policymakers and activists.

The one-day summit was sponsored in part by the Los Angeles Times.

McCartney said she hopes the fellowship would “allow more individuals to study how they can make the world a better place. It’s about helping one person at a time.”