Day 6 and I’m now in Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina where pretty old red-roofed traditional meets ugly industrial (communist) in stark contrast.
When I was planning to come here just a couple of weeks ago it was to volunteer with Aid Brigade and visit House of All. And I did. But between booking and being here, Aid Brigade has shockingly been shut down by the authorities and given two weeks to leave! They made a public statement about it (no longer available).
And so Friday was spent emptying the “Kiosk”, where they previously made hundreds of meals a day, and the food store at their very recently opened new community centre – huge sacks of rice and lentils and cooking oil, and dates intended for Ramadan and now sadly unable to be distributed.
We took all the food to local Bosnian group, Pomozi, and met most of the Bosnian Collective Aid team here too. But what was really cool here was the constant flow of local people dropping off donations. People were coming and going non-stop all day! How awesome. (There was also a resident cat and when I stopped to fuss her a couple of local volunteers ushered me to a corner of the warehouse where they had set up a safe play space for her five kittens! Complete with heaters, hay on the floor, food and toys 
.)
We spent the day loading and driving and unloading. When it was done, long-term volunteer Joao, took me to meet Selma and visit House of All.
House of All is a safe house for especially vulnerable families and single mums. Some of the kids there have disabilities. I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but the atmosphere was so happy! There were climbing frames in the garden, it’s a big beautiful stand-alone house with balconies and on three floors. The ground floor is all kitchen and dining room and shared community space, the first and second floors are the family accommodation rooms and the top floor has a kids playroom, a class room, a first aid space etc. The kids are playing happily – and noisily!
House of All gets pretty good funding for the house rent and for medical care and food… but Selma and the team still have costs like dentist bills, some specific ongoing medical bills for individual residents, eg one little boy who relies on weekly medical help, and pampers… We’ve supported House of All in the past and are proud to keep doing so. I wish more refugee families had access to such a facility and we must help those lucky enough to be here.
