Ten days before schools reopen for the summer term in eastern Zimbabwe, Hellen Tibu is worried about how she will pay the fees for her sister’s education. The 22-year-old landmine-disposal expert smooths the creases from her younger sister’s uniform as it hangs on the washing line outside a relative’s rooms in Sakubva, a densely populated township in Mutare. The shirt is faded around the collar and a new one is needed.
Tibu could afford the school fees and uniform – before the US funding cuts last year meant she no longer had her job clearing landmines. Now she can no longer pay her rent or look after her parents and siblings.
“Life became tough,” she says. “I was the breadwinner in my family.”
From January 2022, Tibu carried out mine disposal with Apopo, an international organisation clearing landmines around Sango, on Zimbabwe’s south-east border with Mozambique, near Chiredzi.
View image in fullscreen A sign, in English and Shona, warning of mines by the border.
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