Kosovo Report June 2008

Before you read on, it should be noted that all of the Social Welfare Directors that I met are working under strict regulations regarding whom they are able to help in their regions.

I was incredulous to discover that, in order to receive ANY help, families must either have children under 5 years or adults under 55 years of age. If, for example, a family has 4 children with severe disabilities or learning problems but they are older than 5, no social help is available to them. Equally, as soon as adults reach the age of 55 years, they can no longer register for or receive any financial help. This means an elderly couple of some 60 or 70 years would receive nothing. All the Social Welfare staff I met voiced their frustration at these restrictions but are  powerless to do anything about it.  It is only the people who fall outside of these strict limits that MTS help. Their remit is only to help those who are not in receipt of any social benefits.

Mitrovica (South) Meeting with: Miran Salihu, Head of Social Welfare

Visited the centre for Social Welfare at Mitrovica. There are four departments within this centre, each having its own area:

* Drug Abuse
* Orphans/Street Children
* Disabled & Delinquent Children
* OAP's.

The staff must work under strict regulations in deciding who is entitled to 50 euros per month. Whereas there is 18% extreme poverty in Kosovo, Mitrovica has 22% extreme poverty. Social Welfare has three collective centres with a total of 300 people. The Head of Social Welfare feels that these collectives receive a great deal of aid so further aid to these people is not essential. He would prefer that any aid available was distributed in the villages instead.

There is an MTS office in Mitrovica manned by Mustaph. He works closely with the Social Welfare office there.

After the meeting, Merlinda took me to a remote area in order to see how people live. This is an example of one family I saw there: Family of eight living in a shack constructed of tarpaulin and plastic in an abandoned orchard. One room used to live and sleep in the same area. The sofa cushions double as mattresses on the floor at night. Extremely cold In winter with no heating. No sanitation nor running water. A simple curtained off area with a bucket of water is all they have to wash in. This family has been living in these conditions for eight years. One child has a chronic blood disorder, which he contracted from a rat bite. The other children appear to have distorted facial features from sleeping in the cold. During our visit, the weather was extremely hot so the mother had sent one son away from the village fearing he would have a stroke. The only family income is from husband collecting tin and aluminium cans from trash bins.
Another visit we made was to a family of eight living in a shipping container in a remote field. The container had been supplied by Irish KFOR. It had no sanitation apart from a hole in the ground. The family has lived here for over 5 years. It is worth noting that on each visit we arrived unannounced and yet found the families, as much as possible, maintaining a clean and tidy environment albeit in the grimmest of circumstances.

Skenderaj  Meeting with Head of Social Services, Halil Hamaza

Although they have 4,700 beneficiaries, including 210 Serbs, for political reasons they were told to reduce their numbers to 2,500 to fall in line with other areas. It is well documented that Skenderaj is one of the poorest area of Kosovo. Unemployment runs at 60% and 21% are living in extreme poverty. The worst poverty is in the suburbs, which consists of 58 villages with an average of 70 families per village. The overall population is 72, 500 people. Despite it being the poorest area, the Social Service centre has only 17 staff (2 are Serbs). Included in this total are 5 specialist staff who advise on the growing problem of Drug and Alcohol abuse.

Podugevo  Meeting with Dr Bahi Thaqi - Head of Social Welfare

A vast region with a population of 120,000. This area was the poorest and least developed area before the war. An incredible 90% of homes were destroyed during the war, which has resulted in massive problems. Dr Bahi advised that food and shelter is the greatest need here with clothing etc presenting much less of a problem. They rely on the heads of villages to establish where the most need is.

The Social Welfare staff work to three categories:

* The Dying
* The Desperate
* The not-so Desperate.

60% unemployment in an area of 78 - 80 villages (was 84 before the war)

A total of 5,430 homes were destroyed during war. 4,200 been rebuilt or repaired showing a net loss of 1,230 homes : 240-250 IDP's in this region. They have 1,400 people on social payment with a total spend of 60,000 euros p.a. The staff I met promised that they would continue to work though the summer to try and identify the poorest families.

Drenas  Meeting with Ilmi Dobra : Head of Social Welfare

This region has 1,929 families receiving social assistance with a total 9,521 people

They were at pains to point out that there is fast becoming an even greater imbalance between the prices of food and fuel against income. They have 30 families with desperate housing needs. In this region, homes were burnt out during the conflict but not structurally damaged therefore, there was no help provided to rebuild. During my visit, one man came in to ask for urgent assistance as his mud constructed house had fallen apart during the rain. An average of 20 people per day personally visit the Social Services Centre to ask for basics such as flour but there is no budget for this. A 76,000 population is spread over 43 villages.

Stats for Drenas
· 67% unemployment
· 12,760 people who are employable if jobs could be found.
· 87 homes were war damaged
· 706 victims of war live there
· 187 martyrs - died protecting their family
· 312 single parent children
· 21 orphans

Lipijan  Meeting with Dr Hanush Gashi - Medical Doctor and Director of Social Welfare

1,570* families currently on benefits scheme = 8000 people.  Families receive between 45 and 75 euros per month

The greatest needs is for food, medication and shelter. There is a new shelter in Magura village housing 21 families (99 people) and an old shelter with 13 families (73 people) - both shelters are mixed ethnicity who are in desperate need. The other categories of recipients are: § War Veterans : 23 families including 47 war invalids. § Victims of War : 100 families

Again, Hanush stressed the great co-operation there is between themselves and MTS. Their Social Welfare budget is only to support these* families - total with an annual budget of only 20, 000 euro. They are working hard trying to fund raise in the community. Recently a school in the area gave enough money to support 50 families. They were previously having private donations from a flour mill but that has stopped. A total population of 82,000 spread over 72 villages in an area of 100 km. They have a desperate need for an Ambulance plus wheelchairs, crutches, mobilization aids, stethoscopes, ultrasound, oxygen and medical equipment. They have organised land projects to encourage people to grow maize, wheat etc. One group are producing 7,000 kgs from one hectare. Of all the places visited, this was the most well organised with well focused staff in a clean centre.

Viti  Meeting with Demush Mehmeti : Head/Director of Social Welfare

This region covers 42 villages with a total population of 65,000. They have 800 families, which fit the 'no benefit' criteria. During this visit I met with a medical doctor who was educated in Nottingham. He requested that we try to help provide toys and equipment for a mother and child playroom so that the children could play in while awaiting their examination by the doctor. They stressed their good working relationship with MTS. During all of the above visits, everyone said they wanted to work with Hope & Aid Direct - most of them knew of HAAD. They were unanimous in telling me that they don't have funding to do any type of groundwork to discover who is most in need. They rely heavily on and are grateful to MTS for that information. Unless the people go to them and meet the strict children under 5 years' or adults under 55 years, they are powerless to help.

In conclusion:- My personal feeling is that helping those families that are living in dilapidated homes should be our main priority. We all know of families living in appalling conditions within collective centres, but there is the slight hope that they will 'one day' be rehoused, whereas those living in ramshackle dwellings in remote areas appear to have completely slipped through the net and even if we turn up with a lorry load of aid for them, chances are they will be in exactly the same position in ten years time.
I have been sceptical about MTS in the past, but have seen (and heard) first hand how much they are doing and are relied upon by others locally, (including the various municipality departments of Labour and Social Welfare, which sometimes go to MTS for data about families most in need). To the best of my knowledge, MTS are the only remaining organisation in Kosovo that has the knowledge and logistical capacity to support our efforts, and I now realise and am completely convinced that we and others could not possibly operate without them. Individuals may be criticised, (although that happens in any organisation), and occasionally poor information received by MTS at their headquarters may lead to questionable drops and mistakes, as may be the case I believe with a drop when Tina & I were there at Easter, however, the organisation itself is doing an admirable job in almost impossible circumstances. If MTS can continue to supply details of families typically in circumstances similar to those I have seen this week, I cannot see how we and they can possibly fail to continue to make a significant difference.

John Evans
9 July 2008   RETURN TO PICTURE PAGES