Nicole Robicheau is a Canadian Red Cross delegate deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina with the IFRC to support flood relief operations.
While packing my bags to come to Bosnia and Herzegovina, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d seen pictures of the devastating floods on TV. But it’s one thing to see something on TV, and something else entirely to be standing in the middle of it. Also knowing a bit of the history of the brutal war in the 1990s, I wondered how people who had already survived a war were faring in the face of a
new emergency.
My first day out in the field, I went to one of the Red Cross run evacuation centres in Brcko district, one of the
worst affected areas. There I met 79-year-old Anda Pilic who told me this is the second time she’s lost a house. The first one was during the war. Not only did she lose a house during the war, but she also lost a son. And going through this experience is bringing back memories of those days. A few days later, while visiting an evacuation centre in the town of Zenice, I met Ramiza Dedic (pictured left) who told me she lost her first husband after the war when he was working for an organization that was clearing landmines.
Driving around the affected areas during the first few weeks, I saw houses covered in bullet holes and sitting in water. Sometimes the water line was as high as four metres.
What strikes me is how resilient people are. People here have survived a war, and they will survive these floods, but it won’t be easy. Many already vulnerable people have lost their only sources of income. In the rural areas, people rely on crops they grow and livestock. Most of the arable land in the affected areas was destroyed, and many livestock killed. One of the things that the Red Cross will be focusing on in the coming weeks is how to support these people through the longer-term recovery process.
Canadians can donate to support these efforts through the
Balkan Floods fund.