Vic Ferguson

Spermato Diavola

Hair by Barber B

HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES: NOV 95-FEB 97

Reference:

A.        Telcon Chesters/Ferguson of 21 Feb 96.

1.         There follows a full report on my humanitarian activities since November 1995.  The document is fairly comprehensive as Colonel Bauer’s requirements were not made clear in Reference A.    

2.         Please find below information on the Non-Governmental Organisation, ‘Kids in Desperate Situations’(KIDS). I hope you will find it interesting.

3.         The volunteers working for KIDS are:

Staff Sergeant Vic Ferguson AGC(SPS)

Miss Marina Bowder  (Sarajevo regional office Tel:  00387 71 443233)

Mr Armin Alagic (Bosnian) (Sarajevo regional office)

4.         Background.   Whilst in Sarajevo on a six month operational tour which began on 22 November 1995 Staff Sergeant Ferguson met an 11 year old girl called Hurmija Mujic in Sarajevo’s Kosevo hospital.  Hurmija had been paralysed by shell fragments embedded in her spine.  She is from Srebrenica, which fell under tragic circumstances in the summer of 1995.  Her Father and two older brothers have been missing, presumed dead, since July 1995.  By March 1996 sufficient funds had been raised, through public appeals and from the generosity of soldiers and their families, to fund the evacuation of Hurmija and her mother, twin sister (who was also injured) and their younger sister.  Logistics were put in place also for the evacuation of three other families, from differing ethnic backgrounds, from Tuzla, East and West Mostar.

KIDS was born out of this experience in May 1996, to carry on the work started by Staff Sergeant Ferguson in a more formal way and with broader outreach possibilities.

5.         Mission Statement.   Kids in Desperate Situations (KIDS) is a Sarajevo-based mission of  local and international volunteers connected by their interest in helping children affected by war.  These children have urgent medical, educational or material needs which remain unaddressed by the international community and are outside the sphere of local humanitarian activities.  KIDS plans to tackle one major project at a time, while gathering information on others.  This ensures that each project is completed in the shortest time frame, promoting efficiency.

6.         KIDS’ principle aim is to continue raising funds for, and giving assistance to, individual children whose lives can be saved by prompt medical evacuation.  KIDS has carried on this work in co-operation with Child Advocacy International (CAI), a UK Registered Charity (No 1048781), by giving direct support to the staff of CAI by funding travel, subsistence and treatment costs for children selected for consideration by KIDS and any other expenses attendant to the evacuation and/or medical care for the selected children.   Each case is considered by CAI staff and advice given on the benefit for the child to be gained by their evacuation.

7.         In addition to medical evacuations KIDS have undertaken such projects as repairing facilities for children, obtaining equipment for schools and orphanages, distributing clothing, toys and other  materials.  KIDS is also running projects to procure computers and equipment necessary for educational purposes and for international child-to-child E-mail communication worldwide.  Together with gifts of material and educational aid these projects are implemented in schools and institutions which lie outside the popular aid circuits and are normally carried out using materials donated by members of the international public.

8.         The following will give you an idea of what has been achieved in the last 15 months:

Hurmija and her family returned to their home in Sarajevo in July 1996.  Whilst in UK Hurmija received a full assessment of her injuries and, unfortunately, a miracle operation to help her walk was not possible.  She received extensive rehabilitation and can now walk with the aid of her gait orthosis.  Both Hurmija and her family received psychiatric counseling and the girls all went to school whilst in the United Kingdom, and can now speak some English.

Hurmija is at home full-time and now attends school in Sarajevo with her sisters, an achievement in itself after spending almost 2 years in a hospital bed.  The family live in a third floor apartment.  KIDS is trying very hard to obtain ground floor accommodation in order that Hurmija can leave their home under her own steam.

KIDS staff in Sarajevo continue to visit Hurmija regularly and provide anything that she needs, including catheters and drugs which were delivered by hand from the United Kingdom to Sarajevo recently. She receives regular physiotherapy from an Italian NGO based in Sarajevo.

Of the other 3 children evacuated in March 1996, Elvis and Adnan (Ado), both had successful heart surgery and are fit, healthy and back in Bosnia looking forward to lives that they would not have had otherwise.  Unfortunately, Ivo from West Mostar proved incurable and returned home four weeks after the evacuation.  The most recent evacuations were those of Medina Karic and baby SALKICA.   Medina, a two year old girl from Zenica was suffering from congenital heart disease and would most certainly have died if left in Bosnia.  She was evacuated to Priory Hospital in Birmingham on 27 August 1996.  The operation (key-hole surgery on her heart, one of the earliest cases for this operation to have been performed) was successful.  Medina is now fully recovered and her mother, Tenzila, who was extremely anxious about the operation is now happy and relaxed.  They returned to Bosnia in September 1996.  The latest, and most impressive achievement, was the evacuation of a baby boy born in a village near Sarajevo with transposition of the great arteries.  The baby was 9 days old when the help of KIDS was requested by the mother.  Details were faxed from the Sarajevo office to Staff Sergeant Ferguson in Vicenza, Italy.  The baby, who was not yet even named by his parents (family name SALKICA) was given six days to live before being switched off life support.  Staff Sergeant Ferguson spent 4 days without sleep pleading for help to save the baby’s life.  Within 48 hours a place was secured in the San Donato Milanese hospital in Milan (the normal charge of 30 million IT Lire was waived by the hospital) and after discussing the problems of moving an unnamed baby (who was not on a passport) into Italy with Ambassador Pennarola in Sarajevo it was agreed the baby would be allowed to travel.  Next came the problem of moving the desperately ill child.  Brigadier General Mariani of 5th Allied Tactical Air Force was approached by Staff Sergeant Ferguson and within 24 hours the Italian Ministry of Defence in Rome agreed to provide an aircraft to transport the child.  A team of surgeons were picked up from Milan and collected the baby from a hospital in Slovenia, returning to Milan on 16 November 1996.  Ironically, Staff Sergeant Ferguson had personal problems of his own and on 17 November received multiple serious injuries whilst returning to the United Kingdom on compassionate leave.  Baby SALKICA was operated on successfully and returned to Bosnia after making an encouraging recovery.  Unfortunately he suffered a relapse and died in February 1997.

9.         KIDS have also evaluated three other children that need evacuation.  3 year old Ema, 5 year old Suada & 10 year old Husein; each have congenital heart disease.  Each of these children need life-saving treatment urgently.

10.       KIDS continues to support schools and kindergartens, orphanages, institutes for the blind, mental and physically handicapped in Bosnia and Croatia with material aid, food, educational supplies and computers. KIDS is also trying to help set up a paraplegic basketball team in Sarajevo, an effort that will require equipment, specialized wheelchairs, sports strip, balls, and nets to be procured.

11.       KIDS is also trying to raise funds to help a family with two boys rebuild their home in Sarajevo.  A friend of theirs drove all the way to Vicenza, Italy to find Staff Sergeant Ferguson to ask for help after hearing about him from Hurmija’s school teachers.  DM 10,000 is needed to get them started.  They will suffer badly as the harsh winter sets in Sarajevo.  A copy of the families initial plea for help is attached.

12.       Since his release from hospital (and during my rehabilitation) Ssgt Ferguson has continued with charity work.  He is currently working on a voluntary basis with a charity called Children in Crisis (No 1020488).  The programme in Leeds is aimed at educating young children about drugs, a major problem in recent years all over Europe.  He is also working with a major international business woman, who has asked to remain anonymous.  The project proposal details a £800,000 project to equip Sarajevo’s Kosevo hospital with Intensive care and high dependency beds in the children’s unit.  The project has been approved by the Minister for Health in Sarajevo and the Director of Kosevo hospital and will utilize staff and expertise from Birmingham Children’s hospital.  The project has been extremely well researched by professional medical experts from Child Advocacy International, and now only requires funding.  Other projects include building safe play areas for children in mined areas and the provision of safe water supplies.  These projects are being carried out in co-operation with Children in Crisis.

13.       You can see from the above information that KIDS have achieved an awful lot to help these children over the last 15 months.  The range of activities is diverse, but my staff see a need, and we try to help wherever we can.  I now have a network of family, friends, servicemen and their families, clubs, schools and institutes all over Europe helping to raise funds for KIDS.

14.       The various stories have been covered by TV networks such as CNN, BBC, ITV, RAI Uno (Italy), TV Hayat (Bosnia), Studio 99 (Bosnia), SSVC, Combat camera (US) and a film crew were commissioned by the British Foreign office to produce a programme called ‘UK Today’ which was shown on 250 networks in 100 countries worldwide.  Stories were published in more than 50 newspapers (many of them National), resulting in funds being received from such places as UK (including Northern Ireland), Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Cyprus, America and even Japan.

15.       I am able to give more detailed information on specific projects in schools, kindergartens, refugee camps etc. if required.  I also have some press cuttings should you think they will be useful.  You can appreciate the time taken to produce this report (one handed due to my injuries!).  I hope it will be of use.

V A FERGUSON

Director Kids in Despreate Situations

Kids in Desperate Situations (KIDS)

Mission Statement 

“Kids in Desperate Situations (KIDS) is a Sarajevo-based mission of local and international volunteers connected by their interest in helping children affected by war.  These children have urgent medical, educational or material needs which remain unmet by the international community and are outside the sphere of local humanitarian activities”.

KIDS principle aim is to continue raising funds for, and rendering assistance to, individual children whose lives can be saved by prompt medical evacuation and treatment.

In addition to medical evacuations KIDS undertakes such projects as repairing facilities for children, obtaining equipment for kindergartens, schools and orphanages, distributing clothes, toys and other materials.  KIDS is also running projects to procure computers and educational equipment for international child-to-child E-mail communication.  Together with gifts of material and educational aid these projects are implemented in schools and institutions which lie outside the usual aid circuits.

In March 1996, sufficient funds had been raised to enable our first evacuation to take place, that of  Hurmija Mujic.  Hurmija is a 12 year old girl from Srebrenica who was paralysed by shell fragments near her home whilst playing with her sister.  Her father and two older brothers were killed in the war.  She was befriended by Staff Sergeant Vic Ferguson, when he met her in Sarajevo’s Kosevo hospital in November 1995.  She had been there for almost two years.  Hurmija received first-rate rehabilitation and counseling at the spinal unit the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt hospital in Oswestry and returned to Sarajevo in July 1996 able to walk unaided by using her gait orthosis.  This was never possible in Bosnia.  Since returning home Hurmija has not spent a single day in hospital and is now able to share much more of her families lives.

In August 1996 Medina Hukic, a two year old girl from Zenica, was evacuated to the Priory hospital in Birmingham where she received life-saving surgery for congenital heart disease.  She returned to Bosnia in September 1996 fit, well and able to look forward to a life she may not have had if left untreated.

We need the continuing support of military units, individual servicemen/women and their familes, churches, pubs, clubs and anyone who wishes to give help to the innocent child-victims of war.

Donations to:

TSB

58 Station Road

Crossgates

LEEDS

LS157YJ

Sort code:  771407

Account number:  19180060

Cheques payable to:

“Kids in Desperate Situations”

Contact numbers for KIDS volunteers are:

Vic Ferguson (Director) on:

+49 172 2327991

or

Marina & Armin (Sarajevo office) on:

+387 71 443233

Support  ‘KIDS’

(Kids in Desperate Situations)

“a grass-roots organisation working with children

in the aftermath of war”

4 year old Sanjin and his mother from Gorazde.

Sanjin is dying from Leukaemia

Kids is a Sarajevo-based Non-Governmental Organisation of international volunteers connected by their interest in helping children in the aftermath of war.  Our projects include raising funds to evacuate children from war zones world-wide for treatment unavailable in their own countries.  KIDS was founded by Staff Sergeant Vic Ferguson and his wife Amanda after Vic had worked with children in Bosnia.

Volunteers are wanted, in ANY capacity; we need particularly individuals, units, schools or clubs to raise funds to continue our projects.  Your support can help to save the lives of the innocent child-victims of war. 

Contact:  Vic  Ferguson on  DSN 634-2809, or 0335 381524 (Mobile).

Cheques can also be sent direct to:  TSB, 58 Station Road, Crossgates, LEEDS, LS15 7YJ.  Payable to V A FERGUSON “KIDS”.

These desperately sick children appreciate your help!

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.

FRIENDSHIP EASES HURMIJA’S PAINFUL BURDEN 

by WO2(SQMS) Vic Ferguson AGC (SPS)

When I first met Hurmija Mujic in the Kosevo hospital in Sarajevo, she was sitting in her wheelchair, her face deadened with a combination of grief, loss and boredom.

Since that day in November 1995 I have forged an unusual bond with Hurmija and her family and have dedicated all of my spare time to helping her and other child victims of the war.  I have also recruited the help of many other soldiers and their families who have listened to my plea for help.

Hurmija was injured during the atrocities in Srebrenica, she avoided death – but she has good reason to envy the dead.  Since October 1994 when a piece of shrapnel severed her spinal cord she has been paralysed from the waist down.  She was evacuated to Sarajevo in November 1994.

Unable to control her bladder, she sat in soiled bedclothes in Sarajevo’s underfunded hospital for 18 months, missing her father and her two eldest brothers who were defending Srebrenica when it fell.  They are almost certainly lying in mass graves, victims of the massacre which took place there last July.

She had a completely lifeless expression, spoke only in monosyllables and never once looked me in the eye when I tried to talk to her.  The room stank.  That night I cried myself to sleep.

Since our depressing first meeting I have visited the hospital almost every night in an attempt to brighten up this sad little girl’s life.  On occasion, Hurmija has seemed almost to forget her burden and we have had great fun; sadly these events are few and far between and only last for a short while.

By the end of December 1995 I had been handed more than DM 4,000 by individual officers and soldiers who had heard Hurmija’s story and felt that they wanted to help.  These donations were completely unsolicited.  In January 1996 Petty Officer Phil Ball persuaded me that I should seek the support of the National press to publicise an appeal for funds to help Hurmija.  On the 15th January the Sun Newspaper in the UK first published an appeal.  This led to many offers of help and donations of cash, the fund raising had begun in earnest.  The Sun article was followed up by many other articles and TV/radio broadcasts in the international media.  By spreading the story of the child victims of the Balkans war an increased public awareness was achieved and more offers of help came flooding in together with  more donations.  I realise that there are many people in need of help at home but in life I feel that you must help wherever you can.

By mid-February Child Advocacy International, a UK-based charity, had been successful in securing a place for Hurmija in the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Spinal Unit in Oswestry.  The next three weeks were full of problems to be solved.  Transport, hotels, flights, visas specialist medical equipment and interpreters  to name but a few.

Professor David Southall, a senior paediatrician from Keele University, and founder of Child Advocacy International, flew out to Bosnia personally to assist in the evacuation.  To add to our difficulties, we were to take three more sick children and some family members from Tuzla, Mostar and Sarajevo to hospitals in Oswestry, Birmingham, London and Liverpool.  Each child suffering from serious but differing illnesses such as heart disease, intractable epilepsy and paralysis with ages ranging from 16 months to 14 years.  In all, we moved 17 Bosnian and Croatian nationals during the evacuation.

The trip took four days of travelling, a real worry because Adnan, a 16 month old boy, was so frail we were concerned that he would not survive the trip.  We left the Kosevo hospital in Sarajevo on Sunday 17 March 1996, just two months after the fund-raising began in earnest.  A great achievement that would not have been possible but for the outstanding generosity of the British public.

Our arrival at London Heathrow airport was covered by the international press.  This assisted further in raising public awareness of the plight of so many helpless children in Bosnia; the innocent victims of this senseless war.  After meeting Mr Tony Williamson, the Chairman of Lions Clubs International and talking to him about our struggle to raise funds at the airport the ‘Lions’ decided to donate a further £ 25,000.  This money will be used to evacuate a further two children, Muhamed Kovac, a 10 year old boy from Gorazde suffering from heart disease and Lejla Valjevcic, an 11 year old girl from Sarajevo who has a tracheostomy tube fitted in her throat that needs urgent attention after failed treatment  here in Sarajevo has resulted twice in respiratory arrests.  She would die without treatment.

The fund-raising and hospital visits will continue, as long as duty permits.  This work is so important and rewarding that it is almost like a drug; you get hooked!  My thanks go to everyone who has contributed in any way to this appeal, we would have been unable to assist these desperate children without your generosity.

Anyone reading this article who feels that they can help in any way should contact:

WO2(SQMS) Vic Ferguson

Coalition Press Information Centre Sarajevo

Holiday Inn

British Forces Post Office 543

Tel:  (00387) 71 417617

Fax:  (00387) 71 417600

Donations can be direct to:

TSB England & Wales

58 Station Road

Crossgates

LEEDS  LS15 7YJ

Account title:  V A FERGUSON ‘ HOPE FOR HURMIJA’ APPEAL

Bank Sort Code:  771407

Account Number:  19180060

Mission accomplished as Hurmija arrives safely in British soil with Mama, Mersija (her twin sister) and Ramija… my 3 little Bosanska Princezas x

Photo by PO Phil Ball without whom none of what we have achieved would have been possible.  Cheers Phil.