|
Saranda (20) and Jehona Bogujevci (17) from Kosova will run in BUPA Great
Manchester Run on May 21st through central Manchester, a city that has taken
them to its heart.
Alongside the girls amongst the throng of 25,000 runners will be the British
Army surgeon who helped save the girls lives.
When Kosova was liberated in June 1999 Lt Col David Vassallo discovered the
girls and their cousins languishing in Prishtina hospital with multiple
shotgun injuries. Saranda and Jehona had survived the massacre of their
family and their friends the Duriqi family who they had given refuge to, at
the height of the Balkans ethnic cleansing campaign.
The girls and three younger cousins clung on to life in a pile of bodies
after the Scorpion paramilitary unit forced 21 women and children into a
secluded garden close to their home in Podujevë and opened fire. Sixteen
died including their grandmother, mothers, siblings and cousins. The
youngest victim was 20 months old.
David Vassallo pioneered the use of tele-medicine sending internet images of
the children's injuries to specialists throughout the world. With the
assistance of the British army the British government medically evacuated
the girls to Manchester.
In a historic domestic war crimes trial in Belgrade in 2003 the children
gave evidence against one of the paramilitaries who carried out the
massacre. He was found guilty and received a maximum sentence. Following the
Bogujevcis' efforts to achieve justice a second Scorpion in the ethnic
cleansing paramilitary unit was extradited from Canada to Serbia but was
recently released without trial.
The children were all awarded the first International Anne Frank Award for
Moral Courage in 2003.
Having undergone years of successful surgery and physiotherapy in Manchester
Saranda and Jehona are thrilled to be training for the run. Now at
university and college in the north west they were recently re-united with
British Army Surgeon Lt Col David Vassallo and asked him to run with them
at the BUPA great Manchester Run. He was delighted to accept.
Saranda and Jehona are members of Manchester Aid to Kosovo (MaK) of which
David Vassallo and Manchester singer songwriter Badly Drawn Boy are patrons.
The injured girls found the parks and gardens of Manchester brought them
peace during their recovery.
Saranda and Jehona asked Manchester Aid to Kosovo to create the Manchester
Peace Park in their hometown where so many members of their family were
murdered. The project is well underway but needs more funding. The girls and
Lt Col David Vassallo are seeking sponsorship for the Great Manchester Run
to create a Peace Park in Kosova.
The 9 hectare park, designed with MaK, the Bogujevcis and the local
community by the Eden Project in Cornwall, is to be a living symbol of the
love and hope the girls have received in the UK.
The field and woodland site needs £30,000 for completion. The Manchester
Peace Park will be the first multi purpose public park in Kosova and its
inclusive design will provide sports facilities, gardens, safe play for
young children, picnic tables, chess, woodland walks and areas for
reflection and remembrance.
Planting will be used in remembrance. Saranda says,
'I want to remember my grandmother and feel close to her through the flowers
that she loved'.
Manchester Aid to Kosova is staffed by volunteers and every penny raised
from the BUPA Great Manchester Run, one of MaK's biggest fundraisers over
the last 2 years, will go straight into creating the Peace Park. MaK has a
team of 26 runners seeking sponsorship including the girls' retired head
teacher from Manchester.
In August the girls will go on to organise the Great Manchester Peace Park
Run with MaK on the Peace Park site in Kosova to continue to raise funds.
This is sure to be a summer highlight in Kosova as the country moves towards
becoming a new European republic, and celebrates recovery, new life and new
beginnings.
Source Greater Manchester
|
Time-to-Run
UK
