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Breaking Ground: From Landmines to Grapevines, One Woman's Mission to Heal the World
Both a memoir and a call to action, this book is a gripping account of the author’s quest to eradicate landmines from the face of the earth.
Heidi Kühn's commitment to fostering peace and raising awareness has been a driving force in her life—from her early days as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, to her time as a reporter in Juneau, Alaska, covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill and US-Russia relations. After overcoming a potentially terminal cancer diagnosis that threatened everything she held dear, Heidi became determined to rid the world of another form of cancer that has plagued the world for decades—landmines—in regions as far-flung as Croatia Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
Inspired by her work of the late Princess Diana, Heidi began the humanitarian organization Roots of Peace from the basement off her Northern California home. She gained the support of famed Napa Valley vintners Robert Mondavi and Mike Grgich, and soon her mines-to-vines. mission began to take hold.
In this powerful memoir, Heidi tells the Roots of Peace story, guiding the reader from the early days in which she built her vision to her current presence on the global stage, where she has worked with presidents, prime ministers, landmine survivors, and religious leaders from around the world to spread a message of peace and recovery. In the years since the founding of Roots of Peace, its agricultural projects have made tremendous progress to fight against landmines, revitalizing devastated land and uplifting the lives of countless people in the process.
Through recalling her journey, Heidi reveals the remarkable change an ordinary person can inspire. Her story is one of faith, healing, and the compassion needed to grow a more peaceful world. Breaking Ground will encourage you to do the extraordinary and help plant the seeds of change for a brighter future.
Heidi Kühn's commitment to fostering peace and raising awareness has been a driving force in her life—from her early days as a student at the University of California, Berkeley, to her time as a reporter in Juneau, Alaska, covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill and US-Russia relations. After overcoming a potentially terminal cancer diagnosis that threatened everything she held dear, Heidi became determined to rid the world of another form of cancer that has plagued the world for decades—landmines—in regions as far-flung as Croatia Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
Inspired by her work of the late Princess Diana, Heidi began the humanitarian organization Roots of Peace from the basement off her Northern California home. She gained the support of famed Napa Valley vintners Robert Mondavi and Mike Grgich, and soon her mines-to-vines. mission began to take hold.
In this powerful memoir, Heidi tells the Roots of Peace story, guiding the reader from the early days in which she built her vision to her current presence on the global stage, where she has worked with presidents, prime ministers, landmine survivors, and religious leaders from around the world to spread a message of peace and recovery. In the years since the founding of Roots of Peace, its agricultural projects have made tremendous progress to fight against landmines, revitalizing devastated land and uplifting the lives of countless people in the process.
Through recalling her journey, Heidi reveals the remarkable change an ordinary person can inspire. Her story is one of faith, healing, and the compassion needed to grow a more peaceful world. Breaking Ground will encourage you to do the extraordinary and help plant the seeds of change for a brighter future.
254 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 28, 2020
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25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 20, 2020
This is a really inspirational book about a former reporter, mother of four and cancer survivor who decided to dedicate her life to converting landmine fields (which are still shockingly prevalent and continue to maim and kill innocent people at horrifying rates) into agricultural fields like vineyards around the world. Kuhn did this work in part as a Christian who wanted to do something good for the world after surviving her cancer and also because she was so inspired by the work of Princess Diana. The early days were spent working from her basement while taking care of her young children but she grew her organization to make real change around the world. Her organization, Roots of Peace, has now raised funds and awareness to remove over 200,000 landmines and explosive devices in 8 countries, and continues to grow and do good in the world.
It's impossible not to be moved and called to action after reading Heidi's story.
I read a digital ARC of this book for review.
It's impossible not to be moved and called to action after reading Heidi's story.
I read a digital ARC of this book for review.
November 15, 2021
Really important work, but important work doesn't necessarily make for the sort of book I'm interested in.
That is: I'm interested in reading about landmines, and landmine survivors, and what it's like to live somewhere where a wrong step might be your last step; I'm interested in statistics and day-in-the-life of deminers and how dangerous it is, relatively speaking, to do demining work versus to be (for example) a farmer in a mine-ridden region. I'm interested in personal stories of people whose lives are marked by mines, and in history and a full list of the 'sixty countries and areas' (6) Kühn tells us have landmines. (I'm curious, for the sake of context, about how landmines compare to, e.g., unexploded non-mine ordinances from WWII—there are still reports semi-regularly about live but unexploded WWII bombs being found in places like Berlin.)
I'm not so interested in 'and then this famous person donated, or facilitated the donation of, this many hundreds of thousands of dollars!' I'm not so interested in building-a-business books, no matter how important the work done by that business. This is perfectly fine for what it is, but not really the book for me.
That is: I'm interested in reading about landmines, and landmine survivors, and what it's like to live somewhere where a wrong step might be your last step; I'm interested in statistics and day-in-the-life of deminers and how dangerous it is, relatively speaking, to do demining work versus to be (for example) a farmer in a mine-ridden region. I'm interested in personal stories of people whose lives are marked by mines, and in history and a full list of the 'sixty countries and areas' (6) Kühn tells us have landmines. (I'm curious, for the sake of context, about how landmines compare to, e.g., unexploded non-mine ordinances from WWII—there are still reports semi-regularly about live but unexploded WWII bombs being found in places like Berlin.)
I'm not so interested in 'and then this famous person donated, or facilitated the donation of, this many hundreds of thousands of dollars!' I'm not so interested in building-a-business books, no matter how important the work done by that business. This is perfectly fine for what it is, but not really the book for me.
February 7, 2023
very interesting story of her efforts to rid the world of land mines
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews