Providing innovative, concrete and sustainable solutions for humanitarian purposes, Apopo is a new project initiated by Only the Brave Foundation, created by Diesel founder Renzo Rosso in 2008.
A social enterprise, Apopo researches, develops and disseminates detection rat technology for nobel purposes. The project trains over 200 “Hero Rats” to work in landmine detection and tuberculosis screening. Trained Detection Rats can quickly and accurately sniff out the disease in human sputum samples. Rats can evaluate 40 sputum samples in just seven minutes, equal to what a skilled lab technician will do in a full day’s work. It takes nine months to fully train a detection rat.
There are currently 66 countries and 7 territories around the world that are affected by landmines or explosive remnants of war. Landmines pose a structural barrier to development and economic growth, long after war ends but many countries lack the resources for landmine clearance. Detection Rats are a cost and time effective solution to detect landmines and it is locally available. In Mozambique alone, Apopo’s mine action team has helped to return over 4.2 million square meters of land to the population.
