Breaking Ground: Transforming Landmines to Grapevines

by Heidi Kühn (Narrator), Queen Noor (Foreword)(Contributor), Ken Rutherford (Contributor)

Both a memoir and a call to action, this audiobook is a gripping account of the author's quest to eradicate landmines from the face of the earth.

Heidi Kühn’s 'BREAKING GROUND' is at once an inspirational memoir and a passionate essay about her lifelong struggle to eradicate fields of landmines and replace them with agricultural projects that bring families in war-torn regions relief from poverty and a way out of conflict.

'BREAKING GROUND' offers a compelling path out of terror and a way to heal the wounds of war. Here is an “economics of peace” grounded in practical solutions to entrenched global problems. The book is written from the point of view of a mother of four with a strong background in business and a humanitarian vocation.

Kühn is a woman of faith who seized an unprecedented opportunity to join an international cause: from the basement of her California home, Kühn created a nongovernmental organization of groundbreaking impact. The result of her efforts, "Roots of Peace", has propelled her into a leading role on the world stage, where she takes her place at the table with secretaries-general, popes, prime ministers, and presidents to champion the needs of families and children throughout the world.

In 'BREAKING GROUND', Kühn inspires ordinary people to join together to do the extraordinary - beat swords into plough shares and turn seeds of hate into seeds of peace for a brighter future.




RUNNING TIME => 7hrs. and 49mins.

©2020 Earth Aware Editions (P)2020 Earth Aware Editions

Audible Audio

First published April 28, 2020

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Peg Albrets · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting story of her efforts to rid the world of land mines