Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Bosnia is on its knees. Torrential rains in the Balkans that have led to the worst flooding in 120 years have left Serbs, Croatians and Muslims alike in need of urgent help.
The devastation is immense. Some 15,000 people have been evacuated so far from their homes in the worst-affected areas of northern Bosnia, where entire villages have been left under water. The death count is well over 30 and expected to rise as recovery operations continue. People are fleeing from the ground that is heaving, on roads that are being swept away, and many people have been forced to take refuge on hills and roofs where they are still stranded, waiting for air lifts out. Many tens of thousands of people have been left without food, electricity or drinking water. The landslides have created the added danger of dislodging some of the estimated one million land mines left over throughout Bosnia from the region's war in the 1990s.
We invite you to contribute any way you can: money, canned and dry food, blankets, personal hygiene items and diapers, clothing, shoes and boots, especially for children, and other useful items you can spare.
On Wednesday, 21 May from 13.00 to 14.00 Katrina Danforth will be in the parking lot of the Main Building with a representative of the Bosnian community in Trieste to collect donations. The donations will be distributed directly to the people in need through our personal contacts in the most critical areas.
Azra Nuhefendic and Katrina Danforth
katrina.danforth@gmail.com, +39 349 6161356