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| <title>Kosovo Update</title> | |
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| <td width="574"><img src="OnCallApril99/KosJournal_head.gif" width="350" height="36" | |
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| <td width="574"><p align="right"><font face="Courier" color="#FF0000"><small>From | |
| Samaritan's Purse Field Headquarters</small><br> | |
| <small>Gjakova, Kosovo</small></font></td> | |
| </tr> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td width="544" valign="top"><font face="Courier" color="#FF0000"><small>Entries Posted:</small><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn6-30.htm"><small>6/30/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn6-23.htm"><small>6/23/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn6-15.htm"><small>6/15/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn6-03.htm"><small>6/03/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn6-01.htm"><small>6/01/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn5-28.htm"><small>5/28/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn5-24.htm"><small>5/24/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn5-19.htm"><small>5/19/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn5-5.htm"><small>5/05/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn5-3.htm"><small>5/03/99</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="KosovoJourn4-27.htm"><small>4/27/99</small></a></font></td> | |
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| </table> | |
| </center></div><div align="center"><center> | |
| <table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="10" width="604" height="1019"> | |
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| <td valign="top" height="55"><p align="center"><img src="images/Baby.jpg" width="275" | |
| height="219" alt="Baby.jpg (12768 bytes)"></td> | |
| <td rowspan="4" valign="top" height="989"><font face="Courier" color="#FF0000"><small>Posted | |
| 7/23/99</small></font><b><p></b>SAMARITAN’S PURSE HELPS TO HEAL A HEARTBROKEN CITY</p> | |
| <p>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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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. <br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| The wounds of war will take time to heal.<br> | |
| 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. <br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| Here is where our ministry has focused:</p> | |
| <b><p>Mine-Sweeping</b><br> | |
| <b> </b>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.<br> | |
| Just as dangerous are the unexploded canisters from NATO cluster | |
| bombs, such as the one discovered by Bekim Mala and his friends.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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.</p> | |
| <b><p>Housing</b><br> | |
| <b> </b>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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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. <br> | |
| 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.</p> | |
| <b><p>Food</b><br> | |
| <b> </b>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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| The local church will also be our partner in establishing a | |
| chaplain program at the city hospital.</p> | |
| <b><p><a name="Kosovo Physicians">Medicine</a></b><br> | |
| <b> </b>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.<br> | |
| 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.<br> | |
| Medical supplies that we had purchased for the refugee camp in | |
| Albania are being shipped to Gjakova.</td> | |
| </tr> | |
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| <td valign="middle" height="211"><p align="center"><img src="images/Kosovo/loadup2.jpg" | |
| width="200" height="144" alt="loadup2.jpg (7551 bytes)"></td> | |
| </tr> | |
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| <td valign="middle" height="137"><p align="center"><img | |
| src="images/Kosovo/Family%20copy.jpg" width="236" height="175" | |
| alt="Family copy.jpg (14722 bytes)"></td> | |
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| <td valign="middle" height="241"></td> | |
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| <table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="10" width="604"> | |
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| <td width="544"><font face="Courier" color="#FF0000"><small>Related News Articles</small><br> | |
| <a href="http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/05/27/nc02.html" target="_blank"><small>5/27/99: | |
| Camp welcomes freed men</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/05/23/nc01.html" target="_blank"><small>5/23/99: | |
| NC relief group finishes its camp</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/05/16/nc00.html" target="_blank"><small>5/16/99:</small> | |
| <small>The long road to normal</small></a><br> | |
| <a href="http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/05/09/nc01.html" target="_blank"><small>5/09/99: | |
| Logistical nightmares delay camp's opening</small></a></font><br> | |
| <font face="Courier" size="2" color="#000000"><a | |
| href="http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/05/04/nc00.html" target="_blank">5/04/99: | |
| Saving the Refugees: Picking nits, telling tales: life in limbo</a></font><br> | |
| <font face="Courier" color="#000000"><a | |
| href="http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1999/05/02/nc01.html" target="_blank"><small>5/02/99: | |
| Fighting mud, red tape to build a refugee camp</small></a></font></td> | |
| </tr> | |
| <tr> | |
| <td width="574"><p align="center"><a href="Aug99.html">Letter from Franklin Graham</a> | <a | |
| href="KosoFact.htm">Crisis Background</a> | <a href="default.htm">Home</a></td> | |
| </tr> | |
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