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The situation is changing dramatically in the Balkans, and Mennonite Central Committee staff are discussing how MCC can adjust its assistance to Yugoslav war victims. Great needs continue, not only in Kosovo, Albania and Serbia, but also in other areas of former Yugoslavia such as Bosnia and Croatia.
"Refugees in Albania are returning to Kosovo in masses," reported Hansuli Gerber, MCC's Europe program director in a June 23 phone call. As a result, MCC staff are assessing how some MCC resources originally intended for Kosovar refugees in Albania, such as a number of refugee kits, can be shifted. Kosovars are returning to destroyed homes and towns, and Gerber noted refugee kits would be "most useful" to them. The refugee kits, assembled by North Americans, contain soap and other hygiene items.
MCC volunteers Dan and Evanna Hess work with refugees in Albania. They helped deliver MCC canned meat to Kosovar families on April 23. The families, traumatized by their flight from Kosovo, were hospitable, and even insisted on serving coffee boiled on their one hot plate, reported the Hesses. "They thanked us repeatedly [for the meat] and some women hugged me several times as we were leaving," said Evanna.
In response to some Kosovars expressed desire for revenge against Serbs, the Hesses are planning peace-building trainings. The Hesses have also initiated a project to supply 30,000 health booklets to refugees who have been coping with crowded conditions in Albanian camps, and with the blazing heat of an Adriatic summer. Some booklets may also go to refugees returning to Kosovar towns where hospitals and clinics have been destroyed.
Last week, MCC workers Harold Otto returned to Belgrade, Serbia, where he is assisting MCC's humanitarian aid partner Bread of Life in planning how to respond to needs created by NATO bombing. Some MCC refugee kits will go to war victims in Serbia. As well, an MCC shipment of food and supplies for children is headed for Pancevo, near Belgrade.
Recipients will be 1,000 families whose homes were bombed by NATO.
In Croatia and Bosnia, where people are still recovering from earlier violence and war, MCC is helping supply sheep, hens and farming tools. As well, Swiss Mennonites have collected refugee kits for Kosovar refugees around Sarajevo.
"MCC is being stretched and will be stretched to make wise and efficient use of the means entrusted to us," said Gerber. "We will plan as well as we can and take one day after another as God's grace."
MCC release
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