Landmines injure thousands and tuberculosis kills millions. Bart realized that the scent-detection ability of the giant pouched rats he kept as pets could be used to sniff out mines and disease and founded APOPO with his former schoolmate Christophe Cox. While they might be small, these Hero Rats are saving lives.
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Leftover landmines and explosives currently threaten almost a third of the world’s countries. In 2018, explosive remnants of war caused 6,897 casualties, of which the vast majority (71%) were civilians and over half of those children.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced in 2015 that tuberculosis kills more people per year than HIV/AIDS and malaria. In 2018, there were 10M new cases of tuberculosis and of these, 1.5M people died. Without treatment, patients usually die and can spread the pathogen to up to 15 other people within a year, causing a vicious cycle that is difficult to break. 
APOPO believes that its scent detection technology can accelerate the detection of landmines and TB and other applications such as search and rescue, illegal trafficking of wildlife and fauna, and detection of other diseases. By committing to R&D, the organization validates the impact and direction of current applications while enhancing them along the way.
Bart Weetjens
Bart Weetjens is a Zen priest, renowned social entrepreneur and holds a Masters in Product Design from Antwerp University. In 1997, he founded APOPO with his former schoolmate Christophe Cox, which saves human lives from disaster and disease by training giant pouched rats to use their powers of detection. He was selected as an ASHOKA fellow and a SCHWAB fellow to the World Economic Forum and won the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2009. He also joined The Wellbeing Project and co-founded lagrandeterre.org, a permaculture/wellbeing center.
APOPO
APOPO is a global non-profit organization that researches, develops, and implements scent detection technology to combat global humanitarian issues. It’s CEO, Christophe Cox is a former schoolmate of Bart’s and they launched APOPO together. APOPO’s detection rats currently unearth landmines and sniff out tuberculosis in affected countries around the world. The rats are trained through clicker/reward methods, receiving tasty food treats when they identify explosives or tuberculosis. They are never harmed because they are too light to actually set off any landmines and are cared for under strict animal welfare guidelines.
APOPO has mine action programs in Angola, Cambodia and Mozambique and is preparing operations in Zimbabwe. APOPO also detects tuberculosis in Tanzania, Mozambique and Ethiopia. APOPO’s Training and Research center is in Tanzania.
