Sarajevo
newspaper praises MFP's Bosnian Children's Project as model
program
Sarajevo, October 2002. Medicine For
Peace's Bosnian Children's Project was featured in a front-page
article in the prominent Sarajevo newspaper, Oslobodenje. The
article praised the project as a "model program that assists
children and parents who were ethnically cleansed from their homes
in Kozarac during the Bosnian War in 1992 and who have been displaced
for ten years." The article highlighted the medical, remedial
educational and recreational aspects of MFP's program, and described
how the program creates a safe and protective environment in which
children can recover from the trauma of the war and refugee life
that followed.
In 1997, Medicine for Peace conducted a medical and mental health
assessment of displaced Moslems who were living in a large refugee
village in northwest Bosnia. The study showed a disturbingly high
frequency of incapacitating psychological and emotional problems,
particularly among children. During the war, Moslem mothers and
children were forced to witness the murder and torture of loved
ones and were subjected to physical and sexual abuse. The Bosnian
Children's Project was initiated to rehabilitate these traumatized
mothers and children and enable them to rebuild their lives within
a safe and supportive community.
During the past two years, displaced Bosnian families have returned
to Kozarac accompanied by Medicine for Peace. Before the war,
Kozarac was home to 29,000 Moslems. It was a typical Bosnian village
tucked in the foothills of the Kozarac Mountains. Now, what remains
of Kozarac is a single street, lined by the shells of burned-out
houses. Serb war criminals freely walk the streets. Moslems are
routinely denied public water and electricity. Nevertheless, with
modest assistance from the governments of Germany and Denmark,
many of the houses are being rebuilt. One might ask, " Why
have 2,000 Bosnians returned to Kozarac and more returning every
day?" MFP's health worker Seida Kaisabacic answers readily,
"This is our home. Genocide and ethnic cleansing must not
be allowed to succeed."
The article
in Oslobodenje praised the joint American-Bosnian program for
its ability to develop local solutions using the strengths in
the Bosnian community and hoped that MFP would develop similar
programs in other parts of Bosnia devastated by the long war.
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