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Posted
7/23/99 SAMARITAN’S PURSE HELPS TO HEAL A HEARTBROKEN CITY
GJAKOVA, Kosovo (July 19, 1999)—The bandaged eyes of 11-year-old Bekim Mala and
the shattered windows of the hospital tell the story of a city which has been too close to
war—and has lived to tell about it.
Mala’s story is doubly tragic. His father and brother were
believed to be killed after the rest of his family fled their home in Gjakova three months
ago. After they returned home, Mala was injured and three of his friends were killed when
they played with an unexploded NATO bomb.
Stories such as Mala’s are all too common around Gjakova,
the city where Samaritan’s Purse has focused its ministry to the returning refugees
of Kosovo.
In the weeks since the war, Samaritan’s Purse has developed
programs to help Gjakova with medicine, food, shelter, and security. Each of these
services fit together—like verses of the Gospel—to make it clear that we have
come in the name of Christ.
Life is coming back to Gjakova, an industrious city of about
60,000 people in western Kosovo. Electricity, water and local phone services have been
restored. Food is available, though bread lines are often long. Schools have reopened.
Children play in streets where the only evidence of war is the neglected yards.
But those streets lead to others where homes and shops and
offices have been vandalized, looted, burned, or bombed. Most of the historic downtown
market has been reduced to rubble. A few houses that might be repaired have been found to
be booby-trapped. Institutions of the ethnic Albanian culture have been desecrated. The
hospital was damaged when NATO bombed a nearby Serbian garrison. And several of the nearby
villages (whose population totaled about 70,000) were destroyed.
Gjakova was a strategic site in the war over Kosovo. The city
lies at the foot of a mountain pass on the Albanian border, so land mines were hidden
throughout the area in anticipation of a possible NATO invasion. Also, the Serbian
minority regarded the city as a stronghold for the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Even the city name is a matter of dispute. The ethnic Albanians
call it "Jako" and spell it to Americans as Gjakova or Gjakove. Maps usually use
the Serbian spellings: Dakovica or Djakovica. And Kosovars have begun calling it "the
city of martyrs" because of the murderous violence the city saw. Gjakova was where
NATO mistakenly bombed a tractor pulling a wagon full of refugees, and it was the site of
two of the war-crimes indictments against Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.
The wounds of war will take time to heal.
But a city suspicious of Christians has begun to embrace
Samaritan’s Purse. People on the streets recognize our shirt logos and say,
"Thank you." One mother asked one of our staffers to kiss her baby.
Seventeen residents of Gjakova are working alongside 16
expatriate staffers in our operation, which includes three warehouses and several trucks.
The warehouses are set up in a factory abandoned five years ago.
Here is where our ministry has focused:
Mine-Sweeping
In the Gjakova district, officials found mines around a
rural school and a suspected mass grave. Worse are the ones that are found accidentally,
often by children. One mine was tripped by an unfortunate cow about 200 yards away from
two of our field workers.
Just as dangerous are the unexploded canisters from NATO cluster
bombs, such as the one discovered by Bekim Mala and his friends.
Soldiers from NATO have cleared mines from the main roads and
strategic sites. But it will take many months to mark and clear the village roads and
countryside of untold hundreds of mines, booby traps, and dud bombs. And with less than
100 days before winter, we cannot wait for clearance.
Samaritan’s Purse has hired and equipped two military
veterans from Tennessee, Dick Binkley and Steve Richardson, who will sweep for mines in
the areas where we need to work. This will ensure that our projects and partners are safe.
Housing
More than 1,000 houses in the city of Gjakova were damaged
or destroyed during the war. But that is only a small fraction of the city’s housing,
and most residents can afford repairs or can spend the winter with neighbors or relatives.
We are focusing our reconstruction project in 35 villages and
neighborhoods surrounding the city where the damage was more extensive and the residents
have fewer alternatives for shelter from the long and cold Balkan winter, which begins in
mid-October.
We plan to reconstruct basic winterized shelters for up to 2,000
families. In many cases, two or more families will share these houses this winter, and
they will work together on the repairs. Teams of engineers and architects are working with
village leaders and going house-to-house to determine the necessary work and materials.
Our teams are identifying damaged buildings where at least 40
square meters (about 420 square feet) can be made winter-proof. Typical repairs include a
new door, plastic windows, a wooden floor, a ceiling under a weatherproof roof, and a flue
for a stove that can be used for heating and cooking.
Food
Gjakova is the center of an agricultural district. Wheat
planted before the refugees left is now ready for harvest. But after three months of
neglect, no one is sure how much bread will be yielded. Farmers are busy rebuilding their
houses, and flour mills and bakeries and shops have been damaged.
We have distributed hundreds of food parcels to returning
refugees in emergency situations. And we have four portable bakeries—one of which
operated at our refugee camp in Albania—ready to produce up to 40,000 loaves daily.
Managing the bakery will be Lala Beruti, a Gjakova businessman and engineer who also was
our partner in constructing the refugee camp at Hamallaj, Albania.
A new evangelical church in Gjakova will be our partner in the
distribution of bread. We plan to give free bread for about three months, until the local
economy recovers to the point that residents can buy it on a discounted basis.
The local church will also be our partner in establishing a
chaplain program at the city hospital.
Medicine
Gjakova has a number of trained doctors and nurses, but
the facilities have been neglected for years and now have been damaged by war. Doctors
from World Medical Mission are developing a program of ongoing seminars and teaching
sessions. We are working with other non-government organizations to repair the blown-out
windows and other damage at the city hospital.
Doctors on our team have been working to upgrade the emergency
room, operating room, central supply, and laboratory at the hospital. The emergency room
is a critical need because of the number of mine-related injuries. We also have been
loaned a mobile clinic that can possibly be used as an ambulance.
Medical supplies that we had purchased for the refugee camp in
Albania are being shipped to Gjakova. |
