Islamic Community sends Ramadan packages to returnees

Convoys carrying humanitarian packages for families who have returned to their pre-war homes left Sarajevo Saturday morning toward several towns throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The traditional distribution of Ramadan packages for 1,000 families was organized by the Islamic Community and Sarajevo-based companies, Klas and BBI Real Estate.

The trucks carrying flour, oil, sugar, coffee and other food and hygienic items worth 80,000 Konvertible Marks (40,903 Euro) are heading toward towns in areas controlled by Bosnian Serbs and Croats, Kupres, Livno, Duvno, Glamoc, Prnjavor, Bosanska Gradiska, Kotor Varos, Rogatica, Zepa, Visegrad and Rudo.

The aid will be distributed to Muslim Bosniaks who have returned there.

This is the fourth year such convoys are organized, said Islamic Community representative Hamed Efendic.

The 34 tons of aid mean a lot to the returnees and apart from that, “it is important that they see that there is someone who thinks about them and that they are not alone."

"That message is probably more important to them than the items we are delivering,” he said.

“The lives of our returnees are hard, mostly old people, sick and fragile people have returned there. The young returnees get no jobs and mainly live of agriculture or livestock,” Efendic said.

The BBI Bank marketing manager, Dino Selimovic, said the aid is organised during Ramadan, so the recipients know they are not forgotten.

“But most important is for them to have jobs, a steady income that allows hem to feed their families and send their children to school,” he said.

The BBI Bank is trying to help them through various projects. A manager of the Klas company which produces and sells grain-based food, Hasan Mrkalj, said the company has a social awareness and wants to be part of this positive story.