ONG - APOPO - EN - Festival della Fotografia Etica (original) (raw)

APOPO is a global non-profit organization that trains African giant pouched rats (fondly nicknamed ‘_HeroRATs_’) to save lives by detecting landmines and tuberculosis in economically challenged countries. APOPO is headquartered in Tanzania and clears landmines in Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia, and soon in Zimbabwe. APOPO also detects tuberculosis in Tanzania and Mozambique and shortly in Ethiopia.

Over 60 countries are contaminated with hidden landmines and other explosive remnants of war that cause tragic accidents and hamper communities from developing their productive land.

Meanwhile, slow and inaccurate detection methods make tuberculosis the world’s most deadly infectious disease. 10 million new people contract TB every year, 3 million go undiagnosed, and 1.8 million die from the disease.

The highly developed sense of smell and light weight of our African giant pouched rats, nicknamed ‘_HeroRATs_’, make them ideal detectors of landmines and tuberculosis.

Detecting tuberculosis remains one of today’s biggest challenges facing medical professionals. APOPO’s TB detection rats can check 100 samples for tuberculosis in 20 minutes. The same task would take a lab technician up to 4 days.

www.apopo.org