A TEAM of firefighters are busy at work trying to help rebuild shattered buildings and lives in war-torn Bosnia, writes JEAN WEST.
They are working on a bright vision for the future of the some of the country's children - a kindergarten in the northern town of Tuzla.
Buildings have become unfit for their use due to bombing attacks or neglect.
The refurbishment of the kindergarten in the district of Mosnik was identified as a matter of urgency which the charity War On Want, a UK aid agency, has now agreed to help fund. Whole communities, villages and towns in the former Yugoslavia were wiped out during the conflict between the Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
After a recent visit to assess the work, Station Officer Graham Hartley, of Accrington Fire Brigade, said: "We saw the horrific war scenes the children in the area had seen in the pictures they had drawn that were pinned up at some of the schools we visited.
"They need to be able to return to some normality. The kindergarten we have seen in a ground floor nursery in a large school building. Refugees have been living there for months and it has been in a state of disrepair and dereliction.
"We want to be able to restore it to its former use so that children can once more attend and their parents can then find work to help get the economy up and running again." The main damage to the kindergarten has been to the fixtures and fittings and the general fabric of the building. The first team of about 20 firefighters, whose skills include plumbing, plastering, electrical repairs and carpet-fitting, are already working on the building.
Builder Steve Whittaker, from Church, said: "We went to one primary school which had been sand-bagged up to the first floor. Whilst pupils were in their lessons, they could hear bullets smacking against the sand-bags."
He added: "The staff at the school had not been paid since last September and their morale was very low. The headmaster had to vary the times when children left the school for home because those firing at them from nearby hills knew when official home time should have been."
Firefighter Les Warren added: "The images in the drawings of some of the children were harrowing. There were houses on fire, bullets, craters from shelling - it was so sad." Margaret Lynch, director of War on Want, said: "When I visited Tuzla last year, the ceasefire was being negotiated and already people were planning the rebuilding of houses, hospitals, schools and orphanages destroyed during the war. "The cameras may now have left the killing fields and the carnage has stopped but people out there urgently need our help. People are living under canvas or in bombed our houses in sub-zero temperatures.
"The war created thousands of orphans who need to be housed. War on Want has joined forces with Lancashire Fire Brigade for this ambitious project."
Assistant Divisional Officer Colin Cunliffe, of Accrington Fire Brigade, added:
"We are appealing to individuals, businesses, clubs, trade union branches and anyone else in Lancashire to support this project through donations.
"The more money we can raise, the more we can do for the people in Tuzla who are crying out for help."
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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