“The Gift
that Keeps on Giving”
A Child
Landmine Survivor Struggles to Build a Life
“Seven
years after the Kosovo conflict ended, NATO bombs continued to
explode (this fall) in the mountains of northern Albania. This
time, however, it was a reassuring sound. Up in the hills, men
in protective gear were setting off bomb lets that alliance
warplanes scattered along the Kosovo border during the 78 days
of hostilities.
Within
earshot but miles away, men and women combed other hillsides,
inch by inch, on hands and knees, searching for landmines
planted by combatants in the ground war between Serb forces and
Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian separatists.
For
isolated villages such as Dobruna, it’s been seven years of
death, amputations, shrapnel wounds and blown-up farm animals,
seven years of blocked-off grazing lands, forests and water
supplies. The explosives have choked off any hope of
development here, denying more than 25,000 people access to
parts of their land…
Most
residents fled the day NATO began bombing Kosovo, March 24,
1999, in a campaign to halt attacks by Serb forces on ethnic
Albanians in the breakaway province. They returned to a
familiar landscape made lethal by landmines and booby traps.
Dobruna had become one of the border’s most
explosives-contaminated villages…
(Excerpted
from Washington Post, “Years After War in Kosovo, Land Mines
Scar Albania,” December 10, 2006, Barbara Frye)
2. Dorian
Daci- Burrel, Dibra
Dorian Dajci is UXO victim. On November 10
2001, Dorian and his brother, Eltion, were playing with a
grenade they had found near their house in Burrel when it
exploded resulting in serious life-threatening injuries for both
boys.
 Before
the accident, Dorian was one of the most intelligent children in
his sixth grade class, full of energy and had lots of friends.
Now, he spends his days and nights shut inside his family’s
apartment, not even leaving to go play outside.
Dorian lost both of his
hands as a result of the injury, has serious burns to his face
and has been diagnosed legally blind. He was hospitalized for 5
months following the accident in the Military Hospital in
Tirana. ICRC and a German NGO supported Dorian to obtain
further medical treatment in Germany where he was fitted for
prosthetic hands, plastic surgery to his face and neck, eye
surgery, and a cornea transplant to his right eye. The cornea
transplant to his right eye did not take and Dorian remains
unable to see. After the accident Dorian stopped attending
school as he was no longer able to read or write as a result of
his injuries. Since the accident, Dorian’s family moved from
Burrel to Lac town, as it is considered to be a more developed
urban area with a better future for their sons. Dorian is from
a family of six, of which neither his mother nor his father have
a permanent job. Dorian does not like to leave the house as he
feels very self-conscious of his injuries.
Action
Taken so far:
Thanks
to the individual support provided by individual donors at
last year’s Night of 1000 Dinners 2004, 2006 and 2007,
Dorian attended Secondary Foreign Languages School in Tirana
and now he is in the III-cnd class. Dorian was examined by
Slovenian medical specialists in July 2004 and has been
recommended to the Slovenian Institute of Rehabilitation to
receive a thorough one month rehabilitation programme. This
programme will involve fitting Dorian with new useable
prostheses and will teach him various methods to promote his
self-dependence. His mother plays the role of tutor to help
him with essentials as he has lost both arms and he is
blind.
Assistance Required:
Funding is needed to
continue to support him to attend IV-th year of Secondary
School with transport, school materials and accommodation.
There is a possibility that Dorian’s vision can be restored.
Funding is needed to
send Dorian abroad where medical treatment is advanced and
help can be provided.
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History of
Regina Murati
Regina Murati was 7 years old when the Gerdec
explosion happened. The day of the accident Regina
Murati was staying home with her mother, grandmother
and her two little sisters. Her house was very near
of the Munitions Depot. When the first explosion
happened her mother and her grandmother took the
children’s and running in the forest to go as far as
possible to rescue their life. ..
Izet ADEMAJ
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Lumturi MUHADRI
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