the kosovo crisis

CARE's Response to the Crisis

CARE had been working in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia since 1993, helping displaced Serb refugees from Bosnia, and in Kosovo since 1998, implementing shelter provision and repair, agricultural rehabilitation, and mine-awareness training and demining. CARE was forced to suspend operations in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in Kosovo province itself in March as a result of the conflict.

Building on its existing presence in the Balkans, however, CARE launched an immediate emergency response in the spring of 1999 to help the nearly 1 million people displaced from Kosovo as a result of the fighting. Eventually CARE assumed management of eight refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia housing more than 100,000 refugees. Along with providing for people's basic needs, CARE staff sought to replicate normal life within the camps as much as possible. Schools were opened, mother and child centers set up, playgrounds built, sports and theater activities organized. These activities all sought to minimize the disruption caused to peoples lives by their status as refugees.

June 10, 1999 saw the end of the NATO air strikes and the entrance of NATO forces into Kosovo to secure the peace. CARE re-entered Kosovo three days after the first NATO troops and resumed operations. Shortly after, thousands of Kosovars began streaming back across the borders, eager to get home and start rebuilding their lives. Refugees returning to Kosovo found a land ravaged by conflict. Tens of thousands of homes in the region were either destroyed or significantly damaged during the conflict. Roads, bridges, communications systems and other major aspects of the region's infrastructure also were damaged along with schools, hospitals and other health centers. Landmines and unexploded ordinance (UXO), scattered across Kosovo threatened the safety of all Kosovars. CARE launched a massive emergency response, to deal with the most urgent and basic human needs: shelter, food, warmth and safety.

A year later saw CARE in charge of one of the largest emergency relief and rehabilitation programs in Kosovo, covering 21 out of 29 municipalities. Activities included the distribution of food and other relief items, shelter provision, housing reconstruction, agricultural rehabilitation, mine awareness training and demining, reproductive health training, a mobile gynecological clinic, psychosocial training and support for schoolteachers.

Shelter:

Photo by Jean-Christophe Goussaud

CARE also began additional roofing projects in the severely damaged villages of Suvareka, Doberdelane and Shiroke. CARE provided emergency winter shelter for some 1,500 people by rehabilitating 10 buildings throughout Mitrovica to be used as collective centers.

Photo by Alix de Mauny. 4-year old Ali Gurri waits to receive some of his family's monthly food supplies: 50 cans of fish, 48 cans of meat, 4 pots of margarine and 2 kilos of milk powder. Ali has also received toys and pencils from CARE, and warm winter clothes.

Firewood Distribution:

CARE distributed more than 3 million cubic feet of wood to help 35,000 vulnerable households throughout Kosovo keep warm this past winter.

Firewood is distributed to central collection points, where villagers gather to collect their share. Photos by Peter Stevenson.

Looking to the Future: Laying the Basis for Sustained Recovery
The provision of emergency relief, however important, was only half the story of CARE's involvement in Kosovo. When winter ended CARE embarked on the vital task of helping Kosovars to rebuild their province and lay the foundation for sustainable development.

Agricultural Rehabilitation:
A major task was to help the people of Kosovo produce enough food for themselves, ending the need for food aid. In the Ferizaj region, corn and wheat are the dominant crops, grown for consumption and local sale. Because many farmers were unable to plant during the war in spring 1999, little wheat was harvested last year. CARE distributed wheat seed and fertilizer, livestock feed and spare tractor parts to thousands of households. CARE carried out agricultural rehabilitation programs in Lipjan, Urosevac, Kacanik, Stimlje and Viti, providing vital agricultural inputs to more than 10,000 households. Of these, more than 2,000 were minority households, with limited access to markets. In the regions of Ferizaj, Kacanik, Lipljan, Shtime, Shterpce, Viti, Gllogoc and Skenderaj, CARE helped 400 farming families repair their harvesters in time for the winter wheat harvest in July and August.

Psychosocial Training:

Photo by Alex Jones

Health:
Good health care is a vital component of promoting recovery and needs to be part of a long-term strategy for development. Among the CARE projects initiated in Kosovo were reproductive health training project and a mobile gynecological clinic.

The Reproductive Health Training Program offered a comprehensive 5-day training program to more than 1,000 Kosovar health workers, covering four major topics: safe motherhood, family planning (known as "Healthy Families"), sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, and sexual and gender-based violence. The program helped to spread knowledge about reproductive health issues at the primary health care level, thus increasing women's access to comprehensive reproductive health care.

Mobile Gynecological Clinic:

Photo by Livio Senigalliesi

Working Hand-in -Hand with Local Institutions:
One of the greatest challenges CARE faced was ensuring the organization's work was sustainable and in tune with local customs and needs. For this reason, CARE worked as frequently as possible with local partners. The Mother Teresa Society, a local non-governmental organization, proved an invaluable partner for CARE's emergency work, helping both to identify beneficiaries and carry out distributions. For the psychosocial project, CARE worked closely with the local Institute of Pedagogy, both to identify and educate local trainers and to provide follow-up support and mentoring to the training workshops. Both health projects were conducted with involvement from the Institute of Health. Such cooperation not only helped CARE reach the right people, but meant that, ultimately, local people would be able to provide such services without need of international assistance.