Afghan Toy Inspires Anti-Mine Device

A child's toy in war-torn Afghanistan has spawned an odd-looking invention which its young Afghan-Dutch inventor says could help save thousands of lives and limbs from deadly landmines.

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5 months ago

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Afghanistan

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SCRIPT It may look like a piece of conceptual art but what these brothers are actually doing is testing their invention. This "Mine Kafon" is a gadget the Hassanis have developed to detonate the countless landmines that litter their native Afghanistan after decades of war. The kafon, short for kafondan, which in Dari means "something which explodes", is made out of 150 bamboo sticks and other bio-degradable materials. SOUNDBITE 1 Massoud Hassani (man) 'Mine Kafon' inventor (English, 24 sec): "These discs, they are meant to catch the wind from inside and also outside and it has also a bamboo pole. So I used here bamboo because it's very cheap and it's from the nature. So that's why it stays biodegradable." Each kafon costs only 40 euros to make, making it both cheap and ecological. It operates on wind power and is designed to be blown around, exploding anti-personnnel mines as it rolls along the ground. Inside the steel ball, GPS technology plots its path to show on a computerised map exactly which areas have been made safe. The brothers' conflict-ridden childhood in Afghanistan was the inspiration behind their brainchild. SOUNDBITE 2 Massoud Hassani (man) 'Mine Kafon' inventor (English, 24 sec): "We used to play really inbetween these explosives and sometimes our toys they got a stuck inbetween and even sometimes we play with the explosives. So it was a very dangerous environment and now it's more a kind of revenge, how to make those dangerous areas safer for kids who wants to just have their childhood. " According to Handicap International, at least 812 people were wounded or killed last year by mines and other leftovers from war. Massoud was 14 when he fled the Taliban regime in 1998, seeking refuge in the Netherlands where he graduated from one of the world's top industrial design schools. He developed the concept as a student, and has been seeking funds to complete the project. SOUNDBITE 3 Massoud Hassani (man) 'Mine Kafon' inventor (English, 24 sec): "Now we're trying to finish this and bring it as a gift also for our country." The Mine Kafon is still in the prototype stage, although with the Dutch Defence Force initial tests in the Moroccan desert last year showed promising results. Now the brothers hope to raise another 100,000 euros to help finally roll out their invention and potentially save thousands of lives. SHOTLIST EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, DECEMBER 19, 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED - VAR of Mahmud and Massoud Hassani rolling the Mine Kafon - VAE of the Mine Kafon and a test explosion (source: Ardent films - all access) - CU Massoud Hassani looking at a bamboo stick - SOUNDBITE 1 - VAR Hassani brothers working in their workshop - VAR of the Mine Kafon being rolled along in the desert (source: Ardent films - all access) - SOUNDBITE 2 BARAKI BARAK, LOGAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN, OCTOBER 13, 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV ** WARNING: INCLUDES SOME GRAPHIC FOOTAGE OF WOUNDED PEOPLE ** - VAR of smoke rising as patrol doctor Reginald Dean rolls on the ground following the explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED) that hit the 2nd platoon, Troop C, 1st esquadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, 173rd airborne Brigade Combat Team EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS, DECEMBER 19, 2012, SOURCE: AFPTV - VAR Massoud Hassani working in his workshop - SOUNDBITE 3 - VAR of the Hassani brothers rolling the Mine Kafon out of the workshop /// -------------------------------------------------- AFP text story: Netherlands-Afghanistan-human-interest-landmine,FEATURE Afghan toy spurs giant 'dandelion' anti-mine device by Jan HENNOP =(PICTURE+VIDEO)= EINDHOVEN, Netherlands, Dec 21, 2012 (AFP) - A child's toy in war-torn Afghanistan has spawned an odd-looking invention resembling a giant dandelion seed which its young Afghan-Dutch inventor says could help save thousands of lives and limbs from the deadly scourge of landmines. Decades of war, notably the 1979-89 Soviet invasion, have left the rugged Afghan countryside littered with innumerable mines that continue to exact a merciless toll, mainly from children. Now, in a small workshop deep in the industrial heart of the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven, Massoud Hassani, 29, screws in the last leg of his solution, which he calls a "mine kafon", an ingenious wind-driven gadget built to clear anti-personnel mines. "The idea comes from our childhood toys which we once played with as kids on the outskirts of Kabul," Hassani told AFP as he rolled out the device for a demonstration. Short for "kafondan" which in Hassani's native Dari language means "something that explodes", the kafon consists of 150 bamboo legs screwed into a central metal ball. At the other end of each leg, a white round plastic disk the size of a small frisbee is attached via a black rubber seal which was once a car part called a "CV-joint boot." Assembled, the spherical kafon looks like a giant cauliflower, or a dandelion seed -- and just like the seed it uses wind power, the kafon is designed to be blown around, exploding anti-personal mines as it rolls on the ground. Because the legs are made from bamboo, they are easily replaceable and once they are blown off by a blast it's simply a matter of screwing on another, which means the kafon can be used over-and-over. Inside the steel ball, a GPS device plots its path and show on a computerised map exactly where it was safe to walk after it "rolled" through an area. Now in a prototype stage, Hassani said his idea still needed extensive testing -- including making sure that there's 100 percent contact between the kafon's "feet" and the ground, so no mine is missed. But initial tests -- including using explosives with the Dutch Defence Force -- and an in-the-field rolling test in Morocco earlier this year show promising results. "We know this is a working prototype and that we need to do lots of testing still," said Hassani, stressing the kafon would not be deployed in a real situation until it has been 100-percent proven. Massoud and his brother Mahmud, 27, are now looking for a sponsor to develop their idea and hope to take it back to Afghanistan in August next year for more trials. They are using an online platform and aim to raise 123,000 euros (160,000 dollars) in donations before January 17, 2013 to further fund development. It will be the first time the Hassanis will go back to Afghanistan after first Massoud in 1998 and then two years later Mahmud fled Taliban-ruled Kabul. Through an arduous trek that took them to Pakistan and Uzbekistan, the brothers finally made their way to the Netherlands, where they were accepted as refugees and today hold Dutch citizenship. In 2010, while Massoud studied at the famed Design Academy Eindhoven -- regarded as one of the foremost industrial design schools in the world -- he first conceived the project. "I had to design a toy from my childhood," said long-haired Massoud as he sipped a cup of black tea. "I went back into my childhood in a dream. I saw the toys we made and how they rolled into a minefield. We could never get them back," he said. Despite huge progress in mine-clearing in Afghanistan in recent years, huge challenges remain, and Afghanistan is one of the most-mined countries in the world. Since 1989, around 650,000 anti-personnel mines, 27,000 anti-tank mines and more than 15 million other pieces of unexploded ordinance have been collected, according to the UN-funded Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan (MACCA). In June this year, there were 5,233 "danger zones" covering 588 square kilometres (227 square miles) putting over 750,000 people at risk, according to the UN. At least 812 people were wounded or killed last year by Afghan mines, victim-triggered improvised explosive devices and other ordinance left over from the Afghan wars, Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation Handicap International said. More than half of the victims were children, it added. "You know, people are killed almost daily in my home country -- and tragically it's often kids, like what happened on Monday," Hassani told AFP, his eyes showing the pain of his own personal memories as a young child growing up in Kabul. The inventor was referring to the tragic deaths of 10 Afghan girls, reported on December 17. They were blown apart in the war-torn country's east after one of them accidentally struck a mine with an axe while collecting firewood. Mary Wareham, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch's arms division told AFP "we appreciate every effort that's made," in the fight against landmines, including the kafon's invention. But she stressed: "There is no silver bullet to solve all the problems associated with mine clearing." Said Hassani: "Every landmine we can destroy could potentially save a life. This will be our revenge on the war that has torn up our country." jhe/cjo