The Chance 4 Children (C4C) team of three, J. Rafal Wojas, Vaclav Cermak and Paloma Brown, returned today from their one week trip to Bosnia. After driving 2600 kilometers, they shed 5 tons worth of weight (and reportedly a few pounds themselves) while delivering over 350.000,- Euros worth of humanitarian aid to impoverished orphanages and other needy children.
The shipment consisted mainly of much needed seasonal clothing from brand name manufacturers, and stationary supplies for the children’s schooling. The goods delivered filled many a gap in the budgets of cash-strapped institutions with resident children, in this country still reeling from a vicious civil war that costs too many people their lives and many children their parents.
The trip aroused due attention from the media and officials alike and resulted in invitations to a live morning TV show on the most popular private TV station in Bosnia-Herzegovina and audiences with the Czech Ambassador to Bosnia and the Ambassador of Bosnia to the Czech Republic. But most of all, it made over 1300 children very happy and helped decisively to improve their quality of life. Click here to see details of the TV show, or here to read about meeting the Ambassador.
The Chance 4 Children teamed up in Bosnia with the local NGO “Srce Puno Osmieha” (a Heart Full of Smiles) and their impressive clown Sasa, who turned out to be a master in the art of bringing smiles to the faces of children who otherwise do not have much to smile about. See him in action by clicking here. “We are very grateful for all the material help we received today from C4C. But to be truthful, Sasa’s contribution of love, joy and happiness is help on a completely different level and it meant so much to the children,” commented Jadranka Mikic from the Most orphanage in Zenica. Most orphans in the institutions lost their parents in the war.
Further contributors to the C4C trip were the Czech civic association “Svét Jako Domov” (World as a home) which helped with some of the expenses associated with the trip, and Caritas Ceske Budejovice, contributing much needed stationary supplies. The sometimes difficult paperwork was facilitated by the NGO “Kruh Sv. Ante” in Sarajewo. Their folks also helped with the distribution of the goods inside the country. The shipment wouldn’t have moved an inch without Iveco Strojservis in Horni Pocernice generously donating the use of a Eurocargo truck for the occasion, while Shell Kladno contributed a tank full of Diesel toward the fuel expenses. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of these kind folks for their generous help and contributions to make this trip the success that it was.
