This TED Talk features technologist and engineer Carlos Vautista, recorded live at TED Residency 2017.

When you walk around the place where you live, most of the times you feel pretty safe and comfortable, right?

Now, imagine if there were landmines buried right here, scattered around, and you'll never

know when you might step on one.

That's how it is for many in my home country, Colombia.

As a result of a 50-year internal armed conflict, we have an undetermined number of landmines

buried throughout the countryside, affecting more than one-third of the Colombian population.

These entente personnel mines are designed to maim not to kill their targets.

The logic behind this, which is awful,

is that more resources are taking up,

caring for an injured soldier

than dealing with a person who has been killed.

I met Adriane Rodriguez about five years ago,

while I was working for the Colombian government

as a documentary filmmaker.

During the conflict, she was forced to leave her house,

with her kids in her arms.

One day, one of her neighbors was killed

while he stepped on a land mine.

He was actually inside an abandoned house, not outside, a house exactly like the one Adriana was forced to live.

Ever since, she has been living with the fear that she or her children might step on a landmine.

You know, the Colombian conflict has been running for so long

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