APOPO vzw

Mission

APOPO's mission is to address the humanitarian challenges of vulnerable African communities by training and using HeroRATS to detect landmines and disease. APOPO additionally builds animal detection expertise through research and the training center in Tanzania.

Programs

APOPO has three service lines: detection of buried landmines (operational and in expansion) detection of pulmonary Tuberculosis (validation phase) and detection of buried victims under rubble after earthquakes and man-made disaster (R&D phase). APOPO has an operational mine clearance program in Mozambique, and is replicating this approach in Angola, Burundi and Uganda. APOPO is also acting as a second line screening for Tuberculosis in clinics in Dar es Salaam while completing validation.

Current Projects on GlobalGiving

HeroRATS:Saving African Lives & Curbing TB Spread

Personnel Overview

Bart Weetjens - Founder and Director
Bart is a product design engineer, focused on appropriate technologies for Africa. Together with his colleagues, he started the APOPO project, training African giant pouched rats to save human lives. Bart is also a practicing Zen Buddhist monk (Soto tradition). He lives and works with his wife and children in Tanzania since 2000.

Christophe Cox - CEO
Christophe is a product design engineer with a long experience in East Africa. He specialized in explosives vapor detection technologies. He developed the HeroRATS technology, which is now endorsed by 11 governments in the African Great Lakes Region. Christophe lives and works with his wife and children in East Africa sine 1992.

Personnel Statistics

Christophe Cox,
CEO
Founded in 1998
Employees: 137
Volunteers: 50

Financial Statistics

Budget (2008): $ 2,027,219
Budget (2007): $ 2,031,498
Maximum Budget: $ 2,031,498
Overhead: 5 %
Other funding sources: APOPO has a ceramic poppies project, called "Flowers Against Mines" and APOPO also has the HeroRAT fundraising website and the HeroRAT Fund (US based 501/c3) with the King Baudouin Foundation in NYC.
Religious Affiliation: None