HELP Germany

Life returns to Dobrinja

Savka Pokrajac and her husband, both Bosnian Serbs from Sarajevo, have moved back into their apartment in Dobrinja, a settlement just opposite Sarajevo airport. They were forced to flee in June 1992 when their neighbourhood became frontline. Dobrinja, a very popular neighbourhood before the war, has been almost completely destroyed and heavily littered with mines. Now, six years later, they are back in their apartment, which has been completely rehabilitated thanks to financial help from the NGO Help Germany, with European Commission funding. Before rehabilitation works could start, deminers had to clean up 120,000 m2. To date, 175 apartments have been rebuilt. Another 100 will follow suit with 67 private houses. The second phase of the Help project includes housing and revival of social life (kindergartens, self-help groups, the creation of meeting rooms for the elderly, etc.).

By Altijana Maric

HELP has been active in the airport settlement since 1997 where it is working to repair streetlights, electricity supplies and a transformer station. Construction of a multi-purpose open theatre and cinema is also underway. The project hopes to revive the cultural life of the airport settlement and the surrounding area, which is at present all but non-existent.

Museum

Other planned schemes include the construction of a museum that it is hoped will serve three distinct purposes. Primarily it will be used to inform primary school children of the danger of landmines. But it is also envisaged that the museum will serve both as an information centre for tourists coming to Sarajevo and as a 'one-stop-shop' for foreign donors planning to invest in the area.

Close to the airport is an open space area that will be transformed into an open-air art gallery where both national and foreign artists will be able to display their work. The galleries' designers point out that it will be the first and last thing that tourists will see when they visit Sarajevo.

Kindergarten

HELP is also planning to provide aid for building a kindergarten that would be used almost immediately by the 150 local children already in need of such an institution.

Other planned projects include an old-people's home. HELP is also working to clean up the green areas within the airport settlement and is planning, along with SFOR and the local park authority, to plant 500 trees and bushes in the area. The redesigned open spaces will also contain children's playgrounds and a network of bicycle tracks.

Elsewhere, Help has rebuilt houses in Sarajevo and Gorazde that will be occupied by refugees returning from Germany. It is planning to begin a similar building project this year that will include the reconstruction of 45 houses in Sarajevo and 45 houses in Gorazde. The organisation also intends to rebuild 50 houses in Mostar and a further 50 in Staro Selo that will be specifically reserved for members of the Roma (Gypsy) community.

Home-care for the Elderly

"In the period from April 1998 until April 1999 we worked on a home-care project that targeted the most vulnerable individuals in the elderly community i.e. people who are bed-ridden, home bound, over 65 years of age, living alone and with very little or no income etc. The project was implemented by two local NGOs, Cantonal Centres for Social welfare and La Benovalencija. The project was funded by ECHO and it covered the area of Sarajevo Canton".

For more information:
HELP
Gerd Wochein
tel.: + 387 71 668 871 or 201526