An innovative charity that trains rats to sniff out landmines has secured £500,000 funding.
The rats have been trained to scratch the ground to indicate the position of the mines and other unexploded ordinance, which kill or main an estimated 20,000 people a year.
Belgian charity Apopo has won a three-year Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship to develop its initiative.
The Belgian charity's founder, Bart Weetjen, said the charity began training the rats a decade ago because they are well suited to conditions in Africa, where millions of mines are left after wars.
Rats are less prone to disease than traditionally-used dogs, and are easier to train and transport, said Weetjen.
The African pouched rats Apopo uses take a year to train, on average, and their acute sense of smell is key to their success.
Since 1997 Weetjen and his team have developed their HeroRAT technology into a leading method for mine detection.
The rats have also been trained to sniff out TB from samples of saliva, and have proved more accurate, faster and cheaper than using a laboratory.
Sally Osberg, chief executive of the Skoll foundation, described Weetken as a powerful example of an effective social entrepreneur, "seizing on ideas others said wouldn't work or couldn't scale and bringing that determination to bear on difficult challenges".