Photo Credit: St Paul’s University College, University of Waterloo
The Canadian Landmine Foundation recently awarded Richard Yim and his social-purpose startup, The Landmine Boys, with $5,000 in funding to support their work towards creating a safe method to defuse dangerous landmines.
“This donation is very much in accordance with our mandate, which increasingly includes connecting and working with people and organizations focused on these goals,” said Chris Snyder, Chair of the CLMF.
“This collaboration with St. Paul’s and The Landmine Boys clearly meets these objectives and we are excited about the possibilities that this could lead to in removing landmines and the improvement it could bring to many people around the world.”
Richard Yim is a recent University of Waterloo Engineering grad who has been working on a robotic device that will allow landmines to be neutralized on site without human supervision. This will ensure that fewer people will be at risk of injury or death from unsafe exposure to landmines, the dangerous unearthed remnants of war.
Richard used funding from St. Paul’s GreenHouse to successfully test a first prototype in Cambodia in December 2015 and is working on the next iteration.
Because landmines still exist in many regions of the world, with an estimated 4-6 million in Cambodia alone, the Canadian Landmine Foundation is working to support Richard and his colleagues, as well as other like-minded people in Cambodia as the project advances.
For more information on Richard’s connection with the University of Waterloo and St. Paul’s GreenHouse, please click here.
