Dear friends - those of you in the US in particular - I have a personal appeal: As most of you know by now, the Western Balkans - Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in particular - have been affected by an unprecedented rainfall this week, resulting in extreme flooding and cutting off communication, roads, and power to entire cities. Images from towns like Doboj, Maglaj, Sabac...have been very difficult to watch for those of us who have families there or have spent any time in the Balkans. In the Bosnian city of Doboj, where the situation is by far the worst, my first cousins (a family of five) have been trapped for days in their sixth-floor apartment, their building surrounded by water 4 meters high. They are out of power, and they finally received some much-needed water and food supplies by boats today. Yet, believe it or not, they still have it better than many others. A few of us, from here in Washington DC and now even beyond, have expressed interest in collecting support. One would think that it would be super easy to do that with all the crowdfunding platforms out there. But its not that simple, for a number of boring and complicated reasons related to taxes, nonprofit status, etc. After much effort, phone calling, emailing, and FB chatting, we seem to have finally identified a reputable and well-known international charity- with programs in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia - which has already restructured its operations on the ground and begun distributing urgently-needed items such as boats, boots, blankets... We are now only waiting to confirm if this charity can channel any collected contributions directly to the program in Bosnia/Serbia (this, again, is not as easy as it seems, so I dont want to name them and put them on a spot until we are sure). Once we confirm this is possible, we will set up or link up to a crowdfunding page to benefit this charity and its efforts in *both* Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia equally. It is very important to us to be able to express solidarity with both countries affected, which is why wed ideally support a program that provides assistance in both. I will inform you here once we are able to put up the page, at which point I hope you will join me and my friends in our effort to provide at least some part of that relief. Thank you very much in advance on behalf of everyone whos been helping set this up: Ajla Delkic, Renata Stuebner, Jadrana Hadrovic, Ivan Butina, Jasminko Halilovic, Ljiljana Sinickovic...and thanks very much to those whos offered prompt advice regarding my earlier question!!! Keep ideas coming - we might still need them!
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 20:20:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015