Although FAP has assisted in other humanitarian efforts to Haiti, Rwanda and Guatemala, this relief effort to Kosovo was our first big international project. The way we got involved in this project reminds me of a story I heard about a gentleman who lived in Rochester, New York. Now, the Genessee River runs through Rochester, between steep and crooked banks. This fellow had just returned from a business trip and was anxious to get home to his wife and children when he saw a group of excited men gathered on the bank of the river. “What’s the matter?” he shouted. They replied, “A boy’s in the water!” “Why don’t you save him?” he asked.
Isn’t that the usual initial reaction to disaster, need, and misfortune? “That’s just terrible! Why doesn’t someone do something to help them? Isn’t there some governmental agency that handles this?” Often, there is genuine concern, but we are so busy and overwhelmed by our own particular circumstances and our own pressing needs that we can’t bear the thought of having to take on what we perceive as someone else’s burden, especially when it is something happening on the other side of the world.
When news of the mass exodus of refugees from Kosovo began to appear in the media, our hearts were touched, but, as many others, we felt, “What can we do? Our resources are so small. How can we help?” Just like the man in the story, our initial reaction was to expect that someone else would take care of it.
Back to our story... This man, without further hesitation, cast his briefcase aside, pulled off his coat, jumped into the river, grasped the boy in his arms, and struggled back to shore. As he wiped the water from the child’s dripping face and brushed back his hair, the man exclaimed, “Good Lord, this is my boy!” He had plunged into the water to save the boy of somebody else and saved his own son instead!
Isn’t that the way life really is? If we don’t make the time or effort to reach out to others, we miss the chance to do something meaningful that could literally save many lives. The urgency of the Kosovar situation drove us to action.
We began by contacting a shipping company that agreed to donate free shipping for nine forty-foot containers. We then spent the next months working with various Houston area businesses, friends, colleagues, and volunteers securing the containers and relief materials, and packing the shipment. This included three containers of nonperishable food, one container of bottled water, one container of medical equipment and supplies, one container of new mattresses and box springs, two containers of clothing and children’s teddy bears, plus another container of camping equipment.An Italian aid organization had volunteered to transport the materials into Kosovo for us but, due to the continued fighting and unrest in Kosovo itself, all of these containers ended up getting stuck at the port in S. Italy.
Responding to our plea for help, Family Care Foundation, covered the remaining financial sponsorship, allowing us to get to Italy and remove the containers from storage. Finally, after painstaking red tape and negotiations, and trips across the sea to Albania, the containers were delivered safely to Mitrovica, Kosovo.
Over the next month, our team of missionary volunteers, working together with the French UN Peacekeeping force (KFOR), all the donated goods were delivered to many of the needest parts of Kosovo. Mitrovica itself is still considered the “hotspot” of Kosovo, with Serbs on one side of the bridge and Albanians on the other, where attacks on UN vehicles and personnel is still a common occurrence. A fellow at the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) told us that the two most dangerous places in Europe are the two bridges in Mitrovica. These supplies couldn’t have gone to a needier place!