In southern Lebanon, MAG Community Liaison teams know that the best way to learn anything is to make it fun. And for this sea of smiling faces, puppets are delivering life-saving lessons, making sure they know the dangers from landmines and cluster bombs around their neighbourhoods, schools and farms.

With Syrian refugees now forming over a quarter of the population of Lebanon, this knowledge is vital. They need to know how to stay safe in their new unfamiliar surroundings but also understand the risk for when they return home. These puppets help make sure that every child leaves with the knowledge that can keep them safe for the rest of their life.

Thank you to all of our supporters for your incredible generosity throughout 2017. You are saving lives and building safer futures.

An incredible 1,960,000 people tuned into our BBC Radio 4 Appeal across 3 broadcasts

We received a staggering £97,000 in response!

£48,000 was raised at an event in just one night!

21 of you signed up to cycle over 400km across Laos with a collective sponsorship target of £105,000!

2,457 generous gifts to our Walk Without Fear Appeal!

2 Superheroes cycled from London to Amsterdam in September, a distance of 257 miles!

1 Prince called for a Landmine Free 2025!

The lasting difference your support makes

Giles’ Story

My name is Giles Duley and I’m a documentary photographer. One of the stories I’m most passionate about telling is the effect of landmines on communities, particularly as a survivor of an IED blast myself.

Imagine thinking that just leaving your house could bring death. Imagine thinking something as simple as collecting water from the local river could leave you with a permanent injury. Or, that when your kids leave for school in the morning they may not come home.

The first time I ever visited a minefield, I was in Chifoio in Angola.

I remember watching as MAG was locating mines just metres away from where children had been playing, next to mud huts where families lived. I thought how could anybody live under that kind of constant fear.

It’s a story that stayed with me and I often wondered what happened to the village and the people that lived there.

This year, I returned to Chifoio village and I was amazed.

The first thing I noticed was the kids running freely in a way they could not have done 10 years before.

I spoke to a lot of the community and I asked them what had changed. They simply looked at me and said: “We live without fear”.

Thanks to everyone who supported MAG in 2017. This is what you make possible. You are making a long-term, tangible, vital difference.

Thank you.

Giles

Overseas programmes: £42.361m

Support and running costs: £4.483m

Fundraising: £263k

Governance: £158k

Total expenditure: £47,265,000

(Overseas programmes includes £628,000 unrestricted sources and MAG investment)

Thank you to all of our supporters for your incredible generosity throughout 2017.

You are saving lives and building safer futures.