The women participated in a six-week training course in manual landmine clearance arranged by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), and will form the first team of all-female de-miners in the Middle East. There are already 150 men working as de-miners on the Jordanian border to Syria. The de-miners will clear the border of 136 000 landmines that were laid down in the 1970s.
The graduates have different backgrounds, some are university graduates, farmers and homemakers. They were all recruited by the NPA in villages in northern Jordan. Working as de-miners they will earn a monthly salary of JD 540 ($ 760 dollars), as well as receiving social security, health, accident and life insurance. According to NPA programme manager in Jordan Stephen Bryant "De-mining statistics throughout the world have shown that while female de-miners may be slower than their male counterparts, their work is more thorough."