On March 11, 2022 in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Princess Angelika Jarosławska of Poland and Roots of Peace founder/CEO Heidi Kuhn have announced a partnership to take action in the wake of troubling landmine-related news out of Ukraine: that landmines have been planted along the refugee pathways out of Ukraine, maiming and killing innocent children.
“What can be more beautiful than turning deadly devices, which cause destruction, into wines, a symbol of life and transformation? Grapes must be crushed to make wine, which takes time. Seeds grow in darkness. It takes time to turn a caterpillar into a butterfly.That is why we want to create a butterfly effect and we trust the process. Together for a mine-free world.” – Angelika Jarosławska Sapieha, International Peace Ambassador, Initiator of One Mine One Life Campaign
The Roots of Peace improve each step of the agricultural value chain. They introduce farmers to new methods and technology, improve export marketing techniques, and create strategies for ramping up food exports to lucrative overseas markets.
As a result, they have helped export nearly 160,000 metric tons of fruits, nuts, and spices valued at more than $350 million to international markets, impacting more than one million farmers and families.
His Excellency Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General announced his support for Roots of Peace: “You have turned mines into vines by replacing the seeds of destruction with the seeds of life…and you have shown the world that even with modest beginnings, a partnership backed up by persistence can make a real difference.”
Both were in attendance at this week’s FORBES 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi, and decided to partner for immediate action amid news that landmines are being planted by Russian forces in the Ukraine along a ‘human corridor’ that was legally designated for safe refugee evacuation. This dishonest and immoral war crime has littered Ukrainian soil with newly planted landmines, unexploded ordnances, and other deadly explosive remnants of war.
Princess Angelika Jarosławska Sapieha of Poland is an International Peace Ambassador and the head of the board of the Geopolitical Alliance of Women, established in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Princess is the initiator of the ’One Mine, One Life’ movement and campaign for a mine-free world. Heidi Kuhn is the Founder/CEO of peacekeeping NGO Roots of Peace that has helped remove 100,000 land mines from the soil of ten countries across the world– and replaced them with the infrastructure for regenerative, sustainable agriculture.
The duo will partner first on a demining initiative in Karabakh, Azerbaijan, where the soil once produced the finest wines in Europe but has since become a “black garden” of landmines. Ms. Kuhn recently visited the fields of Karabakh, detonating eight anti-tank landmines. The work is far from over. “There are an estimated 60 million landmines silently poised in 60 countries, awaiting the sandal of a child or the boot of a farmer,” said Kuhn, “Humanity has the power to detonate a landmine and plant a grapevine as an act of peace. Our goal is to turn ‘Mines to Vines’ on war-torn lands—blood to wine, killing fields into vineyards, swords into plowshares.”
For the past 25 years, Roots of Peace has worked in war-torn countries around the world to remove the remnants of war, landmines and unexploded ordinances, and restore the land in order to rebuild peaceful communities for generations to come.
More than 500 million smallholder farming households across the world live on less than $2 a day. Building a sustainable, regenerative source of income that gives families livelihoods and stability is one of the most pressing issues to be addressed in post-conflict countries. With the help of Roots of Peace, farmers are addressing the key challenges to increased income by applying modern technology and farming techniques that result in increased yields and sustainability.
The Roots of Peace “Mines to Vines” approach has impacted over one million farmers and families. By removing landmines and the remnants of war, Roots of Peace frees land held hostage by unrest. In Afghanistan, it has facilitated the export of fresh fruits, nuts and spices to markets around the world, contributing to the increase in Afghan agricultural exports from $250 million in 2014 to over $1.4 billion in 2020. Roots of Peace’s award-winning methodology is rooted in building a business model for peace: providing market-driven solutions tailored to rural communities in war-torn lands and serving as a catalyst for industry-wide development across the world.
