Syndicate: Balkan Sunflowers Update 18

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

From: wam@mir.org
Date: 15 Nov 99 22:47:59 +0100


Balkan Sunflowers Update 18

**

(our update will now appear weekly, or thereabouts, and not too long in
length...)

**

Kosovo/a Crisis

Yes, we all know that this incarnation of BSf started up in response to the
Kosovo/a crisis,
but now we have our own little BSF Kosovo/a crisis to report ....

The worst thing about the bad news is that it comes at a time when the
activities of BSF in
Kosovo/a are at a high. For example, Children's World, a british circus
skills group, toured
kosovo/a in partnership with BSF - giving workshops to children and
performing shows as
well.  And the people of Peje and Gjakova can now go to the cinema once a
week, thanks to
a film project in which BSF played an active part. Pristina saw 26 primary
and secondary
schools being cleaned up of litter and rubble. This was certainly not the
first BSF-assisted
project which linked a practical action with a wider theme of environmental
awareness, and
which also involved art and writing. Our partners in these projects include
the british KFOR,
IRC and UNICEF. In Gjakova the BSF volunteers are once again showing that
youth and
childrens' activities lead on to wider benefits, in a transit camp that
until now has seen no
other NGO visit on a regular basis, and where the BSf volutneers are now
helping liaise
between residents and management. And so on ....


So what's the crisis?

Theft.

BSF Kosovo/a has been hit by three major thefts recently, in which we have
lost almost all
the equipment we use for the central co-ordination in Kosova.

All these above activities depend upon a strong logistical support from
this central co-
ordination. Our country co-ordinator would regularly visit the volunteer
houses, since there is
no phone system between the towns. The volunteers who arrive are met at the
Pristina base
and oriented, and then driven out to the other bases. The funding
applications need to be
drawn up ....


And now we have lost:
our car
our bright yellow minibus
our two mobile phones
our computer
our printer

plus
a computer donated for a collective centre computer classes
personal belongings of two volunteers - portable cassette-radio and video
camera (both
being used anyway for BSF activities)


***Other News

The Diaries of Wam Kat are now again appearing, after a one-month pause.
Our website
contains the latest from Tirana and now Skopje ...



**************





for the co-ordination team, Belzig, Germany

-----------------
Latest info about the Balkan Sunflowers:
http://www.balkansunflowers.org
apply as volunteer: http://www.mir.org/dataform

our bankaccount always needs feeding:
Accountnr:      160 160 1
Accountname:   Balkan Sunflowers e.V.
Bank            Oekobank Frankfurt (Germany)
Blz             500 901 00

Tel: +49-33841-30670
Fax: +49-33841-30671
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