Bosnia Humanitarian Aid Relief effort 1998-2005

BTW has been working in Bosnia since 2002.   KLAS and LAS have been doing humanitarian projects into Gorazde, Bosnia since 1998.

Since 1998 Leysin American School (LAS) and the Kumon Leysin Academy of Switzerland (KLAS) have joined hands in bringing relief aid to the thousands of war victims on the Gorazde Canton Bosnia. Some 40,000 people lost their homes, family members and all hope in this gruesome war. Since the conception of Beyond Tears Worldwide in 2002, these international schools have mobilized over 200 students to not only bring aid to these hurting people but also to learn what it means to “become a servant” and understand what it means to be a war casualty.

In Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), Beyond Tears Worldwide stands with Displaced People (DPs) in their need through distribution of vitally needed food packs and clothing aid. (DPs are those former citizens who had to flee from ethnic cleansing during the civil war and who now live in areas and housing that they can not call their own.) Food packs include: sugar, salt, coffee, pasta, and bottles of cooking oil which when accompanied by a twenty-five kilogram bag of flour meets the basic nutritional needs of a family of four for about a month. Clothing aid is in the form of children’s shoes, socks and undergarments. These small gifts help alleviate some of the hardships caused by the depredation of war and help to establish necessary contact between the people of Bosnia and the outside world.

Distribution is accomplished through short-term teams of high school and college age international volunteers from around the world who desire to serve the people. Foodstuff is purchased locally, in bulk, with donations of individual partners, supporting organizations, and through the fund raising efforts of the teams in their respective communities. Teams repackage the bulk foodstuff into smaller portions. These portions are then organized into family food packs which are then personally delivered by the team members to the ‘homes’ of the neediest.

Team members experience some of the same hardships of the Bosnian and Serbian people through home-stay experiences around the Gorazde area of Bosnia.

Other programs and activities include elementary and junior high school recreation days, BTW sponsored city-wide sports competitions, foundation preparation for new home construction, visitation to the poor and neglected, elementary school distributions of school supplies, visitation to sites where known instances of ethnic cleansing have taken place, etc. BTW team members will engage in those activities that will give them personal contact with the people in an attempt to help alleviate the scars of war in the survivors and successors of war.

BTW believes that when people have their basic needs met and when they sense that others around the world care enough to stand with them in their need, they will have renewed dignity and energy for rebuilding their war-torn lives and their war-torn communities. BTW supports the people, families, and communities of BiH through personal acts of kindness and compassion one loving deed at a time.

A number of these students have gone on to university with the goal of preparing themselves for future work in humanitarian aid and development. One has become a doctor, another serves with the Peace Corps in Togo and yet another has become a fulltime staff member with Beyond Tears in Afghanistan. Others are planning to do internships with us in the coming year.

This March, 53 students with join us once again in Gorazde, Bosnia.