{"id":1159,"date":"2018-11-03T19:19:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T19:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esfkosovo.org\/?p=1159"},"modified":"2021-05-02T06:36:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T06:36:47","slug":"gracanicaonline-info-about-esfk-mission-kosovo-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/esfkosovo.org\/?p=1159","title":{"rendered":"Gracanicaonline.info about ESFK Mission-Kosovo 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 30th of October 2018 the online portal gracanicaonline.info<\/a> reported about our this years mission:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The successful completion of the humanitarian October-Mission from the European Solidarity Front for Kosovo<\/strong><\/p>\n

The young German from Dresden, Maik M\u00fcller, who heads the german branch of the European Solidarity Front for Kosovo, also took part in a humanitarian mission to Kosovo and Metohija this October, bringing a group of humanitarians from several european countries to jointly implement projects to help the serbian people.<\/p>\n

According to the already prepared plan, they visited Kosovska Mitrovica, Orahovac, Prizren, Gra\u010danica, Novo Brdo, Prilu\u017eje, the village of Banje, as well as the Gra\u010danica Monastery, Visoki De\u010dani, Zo\u010di\u0161te, Sv. Archangels, and after all the visits, they returned to Velika Ho\u010da to live in peace and socializing with friends who, during previous visits, came to this village. During this visit, they spent most of their time on tours and socializing with children. This time they visited the elementary school \u201eDositej Obradovi\u0107\u201c and the high school in Orahovac, as well as the school in the village of Banje near Srbica. For all three schools, they prepared office materials for the needs of schools and teachers, school supplies for pupils and toys for preschoolers. School supplies were supported by friends from the organization \u201eThird Way\u201c from Poland for their friends from Germany, Finland and Italy, in action for the children of Kosovo and Metohija.<\/p>\n

Random meeting on the bridge at the Ibar<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the beginning of the October-Mission in Kosovska Mitrovica, Maik was happy about a fortuitously meeting at dawn on the famous bridge on the Ibar. In his opinion this meeting was the most beautiful start of all his previous trips to Kosovo and Metohija, which is why Maik shares the experience with us.<\/p>\n

– Just think, we arrive in Kosovska Mitrovica, five o’clock in the morning, the city was sleeping. We walked through the bridge on the Ibar in silence, no finger was seen in front of our eyes, and suddenly a car passing by, going to work, coming back and coming out of the window, someone called me \u201eHey, Maik!\u201c I turn around and see a friend getting out of the car, Miroslav from Velika Ho\u010da, a professor of art in Orahovac high school. With our friendly greeting and embrace at the bridge between the two Kosovska Mitrovica, our mission began.<\/p>\n

The meeting with Miroslav was just one of the many meetings that followed the same, but in the coming days. Dobrosav was waiting in Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvonko in Prizren, Jovana and Dejan in Orahovac, same as Dobrila and Olivera, Father Milenko in Velika Ho\u010da and family Sapi\u0107 in the village of Banje.<\/p>\n

In Gra\u010danica they met with Svetlana Stevi\u0107, wife of a priest and head of the peoples kitchen. They gave her clothes for the poorest among the needy, who depend on the people’s kitchens help. They also met the president of the football school \u201e28. June\u201c. In Priluzje they were happy with the children of the sports club, played football and donated various equipment. The game ended with a catastrophic 11:2 result and as Maik said, \u201eThe kids beat us and got us to come back and play the rematch.\u201c<\/p>\n

In the village of Banje, the team of humanitarians were hanging out with schoolchildren, whom they helped this time and were guests in the house of the friendly \u0160api\u0107 family. In Velika Ho\u010da they visited the family of Sa\u0161ko Mici\u0107, for whom they bought cows and calves in cooperation with the Orthodox parish of Munich and the father Djordje Trajkovi\u0107. They also visited Zlata Kosti\u0107, where they checked out the circumstances under which she lives and promised to help her to repair the bathroom.<\/p>\n

Help is the dearest, if it comes from the heart<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maik, already known for his humanity and love for the Serbian people, was joyously welcomed by the children in all places. They ran into his embrace, asked him about his daughter, her peer, and sang a song to her … And he, touched by their love and play in the smallest of spaces, wept and said what his friends and he are doing and help is little, but comes from the heart. And if he had not said it, their hosts would have known and felt it.<\/p>\n

His collected impressions are shared by Maik, who was named \u201eGerman\u201c (after the Saint Herman of Alaska) two years ago at his baptism in \u0160a\u0161inci, with our readers, with the wish that also people from other parts of the world will visit the shrines and people of Kosovo and Metohija and help the children who live there, like his friends and he do.<\/p>\n

– My friends and me visit Kosovo and Metohioch once or twice a year, but in our own countries and from home we constantly monitor what happens here, and every time we hear bad news, it’s like one torn out a piece of our heart. That’s why it’s easier when we come, we see, we talk to the people, we help \u2013 Maik starts his story and continues:<\/p>\n

– Every time new people come with me and my friend Marian. And once again it was like this. They told me after visiting the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica: \u201eWe have seen that in this part of Mitrovica there are many investments of the European Union, but also many albanian flags\u201c. These flags, buildings and a different way of life are very different from those in serbian places, everyone noticed.<\/p>\n

Maik told us that in Orahovac for the first time they visited the clinic:<\/strong><\/p>\n

– We have come to Orahovac for years, we visit the schools and kindergartens and we are already friends with the professors. We work on all aid projects in consultation with them. This time we visited an ambulance in this city for the first time. We talked to Doctor Dostan Grkovi\u0107, how they work there, what their problems are and what they need. And we’ve brought them some crutches that they can use if there are patients with leg fractures and so on.<\/p>\n

– What I would like to emphasize, says Maik \u2013 when it comes to visiting the peoples kitchens in Gra\u010danica and Novi Brdo, which are run by the humanitarian organization \u201eMajka devet Jugovi\u0107a\u201c and whose animal farms were opened thanks to the Frenchman Arnaud Gouillon and his organization: Of all the people we met, we have only heard good things about him and his work and we are very sorry that they were forbidden to come to Kosovo and Metohija.<\/p>\n

– In the village Banje we were welcomed by the children of the school and the priest Neboj\u0161a. Father Neboj\u0161a told us about the hard life in Istog, where he lives with his wife and children. The father serves in a church in the vicinity of which there are no Serbs. We sang the song \u201eOj Kosovo\u201c with the kids from school and that was very emotional for me, although I did not hear the song for the first time. I was grateful for the card given to me by the children of this school. They have even designed it with devotion, as a sign of gratitude. We also received a large certificate from Orahovac High School, which was handcrafted by schoolgirl Ljubica Mici\u0107 \u2013 said Maik.<\/p>\n

Special impressions Maik takes from Visoki De\u010dani
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the meetings with the children, Maik always has joyful encounters with our sanctuaries and monks and tells us:<\/p>\n

– What was especially important for me and my friends was the visit of the canon to the Holy King Stefan De\u010danski in De\u010dani. We had the honor of spending the night in De\u010dani and talking to father Isaija and the monastery head Archimandrite father Sava, who told us about the situation and the problems of the monastery. We exchanged our impressions and thoughts about Kosovo and Metohija and we are grateful that Father Sava has taken the time for us, although he is very busy, not only because there is much to do in the monastery, but also because of the solution of many problems with the monastery land, an illegal street at the monastery and other difficult situations. In this way we greet him and hope that this place, himself and his monks, may be protected from the attack of indecent people.<\/p>\n

New to this mission was for Maik and his friends to attend the Miholjdan celebration in Velika Ho\u010da<\/strong><\/p>\n

– First of all, I would like to thank my friends, the Radi\u0107 and Baljo\u0161evi\u0107 families, who have proposed to be at Miholjdan in Velika Ho\u010da. Some of us participated in the liturgy and were invited by father Milenko to have lunch with other guests, priests and poets. And it was an honor to meet Bishop Theodosius, who blessed me and took a picture with me. I met the great serbian poet Matija Be\u0107kovi\u0107, we saw folklore, we listened to folk songs …
\nThis was a great moment for us because we live in a situation called \u201ethe West\u201c where the great powers try to cut our roots because they know, that identity is one of the nation’s main pillars and that we are nothing without our roots and identity. We see it every day at home. Considering how people live in Kosovo and Metohija, how their culture and heritage can not be explained in words. We can only imagine how we live in the so-called freedom and how it actually is here. Miholjdan was a great opportunity to see what it looks like. We have seen many people we have met in recent years and have met new people. It was a great time and wonderful experience with which we ended our stay in Velika Ho\u010da.<\/p>\n

Help the family of Zlata Kosti\u0107<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before leaving Kosovo and Metohija, Maik said they would promptly launch a new campaign after returning to their home countries to help Mrs. Zlata Kosti\u0107, whose two brothers were abducted by members of the KLA. Maik is confident that he will return to Kosovo and Metohija.<\/p>\n

From Velika Ho\u010da, Maik wants to send a message to the people of the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

– We work mostly uninterrupted, so often have too little time for the family, we run to bring children to school and then be on time for work and back to them to pick them up in time. All this just to have enough money to pay for the apartment, the electricity and other obligations. People spend their money on more or less meaningless things, with no interest in what’s happening in their neighborhood. In a world where the car is parked in a house where it is warm, and right next door a homeless man sleeps who he is cold and does not feel well. That means something is definitely wrong. It means that people need to stop immediately, open their eyes and think about what they actually have. They fly by plane to the sun, travel to Greece on their well deserved vacation, leaving behind Kosovo and Metohija, without knowing under what circumstances the people live down there. I think people in Europe should open their eyes, see what’s happening in the middle of Europe, how people live, how they can not move, how they can not go on vacation, and they do not even know how they should live from one day to another. It would be my message to everyone to look around, see the other people and try to help.<\/p>\n

Olivera Radic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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