Antonina Kulhava, a 32-year-old Ukrainian woman, is helping clear mines and other explosives left behind by the war in Ukraine.
Antonina Kulhava, a Ukrainian humanitarian deminer, is helping clear mines and explosives left behind by the war. She says farmers have returned to some of the fields cleared by her team.
“It’s nothing like I’ve done before. she found a job opening with MAG While waiting for a visa to move to Czechia. She initially thought the job was too dangerous. But after learning more about it, she decided to apply. They were shocked when they later found out.
Because the more we clean our lands, the more people will come back to their homes, to their lands, and also just to make Ukraine safer,” she said, it helps people in Ukraine. Because she did not want them to worry, she said that she did not tell her parents about the job at first. Women make up around 30 to 35% of people working in humanitarian mine action, according to UN Women. Only around 12% are directly involved in fieldwork.
Some of the fields cleared by her team are now being used by farmers again, with sunflowers growing where mines were once found, she told The Independent . “The fields where we previously worked are being cultivated by farmers, and there are a field of sunflowers where the mines were,” Kulhava said, who works with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG). “It’s an interesting and challenging job,” she said. Kulhava said she had never worked in mine clearance before. “I think that somewhere deep in their souls they would like me to not work in this area, to not be involved, but what we can do?” she said.
She previously worked in finance and later became a pastry chef.
