Scottish Football Fans Help Bring a Dream Closer
SCOTLAND, 3 aug 02 (Balkan Times)--
http://www.balkantimes.com/html2/english/020819-SVETLA-000.htm
Thousands of people were killed in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The Sarajevo siege alone took the lives of more than 10,500 people, including 1,600 children. Thousands of the survivors were left invalids. Kemal Karic is one of them.
Kemal is a 10-year-old boy with a dream of being a football player. On 1 August he came a step closer to his dream -- he received a donation worth almost £4,800 raised by Scottish football fans. The money will help Kemal get a new artificial leg and to help have his family's house rebuilt.
Presenting the donation, British Ambassador to BiH Ian Cliff said, "I am very happy that we have been able to help a young man who was a victim of war. Of course, he is one of many. But the fact that the Scottish Football Supporters' Association [the "Tartan Army"] have provided this humanitarian
assistance to an individual makes it something human and personal rather than abstract."
Kemal lost his leg when he was four months old. During an artillery attack on Sarajevo in May 1992, his mother was running for a bomb shelter with her baby son in her arms. She could not make it. A mortar shell killed her, injuring Kemal's leg. It had to be amputated.
Kemal was seven months old and living with his grandmother in the basement of a house severely damaged by mortar shells when help came from an unexpected place. Italian journalist Toni Capuozzo, was in the besieged city [Sarajevo remained under Serb siege for three and a half years]. With the
little boy hidden in the trunk of his car, Capuozzo was able to smuggle Kemal out of the city.
Scottish football fans organised various charity activities to help Kemal. Kemal spent the next five years with Capuozzo's family in Italy. Then he returned home to his father and grandmother, Adila, who says Capuozzo visits them regularly for Kemal's birthdays.
As he grows, Kemal needs to have his prosthetic leg replaced with one that fits his size. However, his family is poor and cannot afford to buy a new artificial leg for the boy.
Then the Tartan Army -- winner of the UEFA award for "being the most loyal, friendly and best-behaved fans to attend the championships" and Fair Play award by the Belgium Olympic Committee -- came to rescue.
The Scottish football fans were quite inventive. Intent to help Kemal, they organised various charity activities including a parachute parade, cliff-climbing, compiling and printing an unofficial Tartan Army song book, selling personalised T-shirts, etc. Funds were raised also on social nights, and of course, there were direct cash contributions coming to the Appeal Fund bank account as well. Funds were raised also through Tartan Army contacts and via the Internet.
Initially, the Tartan Army wanted to raise £1,500, which would be enough for Kemal to get a new state-of-the-art adjustable leg, and possibly another £1,500 to cover the cost of improvements to the boy's family's house. As the fund raising appeal closed, it turned out that both targets had been greatly
surpassed. The football fans had managed to raise £4,792. Thanking those who helped raised the funds, Ally MacIver, member of the North of Scotland Tartan Army (NOSTA) committee said "It's probably the best thing I've ever been involved in my life."
Apart from the donation, Kemal received another -- perhaps, very precious for him -- gift from the Scottish football fans -- a tartan-pattern beret and a T-shirt with the Tartan Army logo and his nickname, Kemo, on the back. He became a Tartan Army member too.
According to UNICEF, during the Sarajevo siege, almost one child in every four was wounded. Bosnian children outside Sarajevo also became victims of war, or survivors of war, as MacIver put it. Many became injured after stepping on landmines, or by grenades.
Nadejl Markovic was 8 years old and playing near his house. He found a grenade in a pile of rubbish and threw it to the ground. It exploded. He lost his right arm and eye. Damir Palavra has a prothesis in place of a leg lost after he stepped on a mine near his home in the village of Dobrinja. Samra Graho of Sarajevo was hit by a grenade. Like Kemal, she now has a prothesis for a leg. And there are many, many others.
Different international relief organisations and NGOs have been helping BiH's children victims of war.
On 15 September 1995, world famous tenor, Luciano Pavarotti recorded live a unique concert, in his hometown, Modena. It was designed to benefit children affected by the war in Bosnia, specifically by building a music school in Mostar in collaboration with the War Child charity.
The "Pavarotti & Friends Together For The Children Of Bosnia" concert brought together a host of the world's greatest tenor and pop music singers to create an exceptional album. Among those taking part in the event were U2 vocalist Bono, Michael Bolton, Dolores O’Riordan, Simon Le Bon, Croatian-born Nenad Bach, and many others.
© 2001 Balkan Times. All Rights Reserved.
