Antioquia, Colombia

Photographer: Oscar B Castillo

Year of Submission: 2016 (Educators Edition) 

Astrid Elena, 28, works as an instructor teaching first aid, emergency resuscitation and medical evacuation techniques to groups of young deminers in the mountains of north-west Colombia’s Antioquia Department. A trained nurse, she prefers working outside to being inside a hospital in her native city of Medellín, Antioquia’s capital, despite the risk of having to walk across land strewn with landmines. Landmines and other improvised anti-personnel explosive devices are a scourge for Colombians living in rural areas across the country. Antioquia has suffered more than any other department, with 2,500 victims since 2010. The demining programme and Astrid’s first aid courses are organised by UK-based HALO Trust, a charity whose mission is removing landmines and other dangerous detritus left behind by war