I worked as a photographer and videographer for PDSA, to cover the story of Magawa the Hero rat being awarded the PDSA Gold Medal for his work saving lives by clearing mines in Cambodia.
I was contacted by Apopo, a mine-clearing NGO, who realised that they could train rats to smell TNT, which is used in landmines. The rats are trained at Apopo’s training facility in Tanzania before coming to Cambodia to work clearing the mines. The rats are too light to set off the mines, are more reliable than the landmine detecting dogs and are much quicker a detecting the mines than using the traditional method using a metal detector.
It was great to work alongside Michael from Apopo, who over the course of the shoot shared his encyclopaedic knowledge of mine clearing and working with rats to clear the mines.
Photos and videos from the shoot were widely shared with local and international publications including The Phnom Penh Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, The BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera.
