Another supporter joins Kids in Desperate Situations in support of Bosnian children..
From: Warrant Officer Class 2 V A Ferguson
Superintending Clerk
Coalition Press Information Centre
Holiday Inn, Sarajevo
British Forces Post Office 543
Tel: (00387) 71 447-617
Fax: (00387) 71 447-600
Hurmija/96/Evac
Jeanette Covington
61a Tytherton Road
Tufnell Park
LONDON N19 4PZ April 1996
Thank you for your most kind letter of 21st March. I am just getting round to replying after taking two weeks leave with my family in Germany; my first break since November 1995!
I was absolutely shattered, both physically and emotionally, after the evacuation. But for me it was the realisation of a dream that I had spent 5 months in trying to make come true.
You mentioned that you would like to do more on Bosnian children. I am leaving Bosnia in the near future, probably in the next couple of weeks, and will return in late September. I am still, however, continuing to help where I can before I depart. I continue to receive and distribute large amounts of humanitarian aid and will be taking some soldiers to a local kindergarten, school and the Kosevo hospital this Friday, the 19th April.
You have to be here in Bosnia to feel the real measure of the suffering that has been caused by this terrible war. Of course, the children, on all sides, are the innocent victims.
Towards the end of this month I will be helping Professor David Southall of Child Advocacy International to evacuate a further two children for treatment in the UK, I have full details on one of them if you are interested.
As far as the children that we evacuated in March are concerned, everything went extremely well. Hurmija has walked with the aid of her Gait Orthosis, a medical device to assist to straighten her spine. Adnan, the 16 month old, and Elvis the 14 year old, have both undergone surgery and I am told that all went very well. Unfortunately Ivo, the 7 year old suffering from Epilepsy could not be helped and has returned to Bosnia. The others should all return some time in the next three or four weeks.
I have also made contact with the Red Cross and am trying to help the older brother and sister of Hurmija, who are still here in Sarajevo, to trace their father and two brothers who have been missing since the fall of Srebrenica last summer. I do not think that there is much hope that they will be alive, but at least the family can be sure of their fate if the Red Cross manage to turn up any information.
Please call me if you feel that you can help in any way, if not, it would be nice to speak to you again. Whatever happens, I am grateful for your support in bringing public attention to the plight of these poor children.