Help For Bosnia
From Hadassah

I

hree Hadassah volunteers
fulfilled their promise by
returning to Sarajevo to
deliver 75 tons of human-
itarian aid and to assess what
new measures can be taken to
help the people of Bosnia rebuild
their lives.
The three women were Elsie
Roth, a 67-year-old grandmoth-
er and registered nurse from St.
Louis, Mo.; Sherry Hahn, a
mother of three from Arlington,
Mass.; and Safeta (Sada) Ovci-
na, a Bosnian Muslim nurse
r who now lives in St. Louis, for
whom this mission was a brief
return home. For eight months,
they worked to obtain the aid
and make arrangements for its
shipment. To ensure that the
aid was distributed to those who
needed it most, they traveled
over 15,000 miles to see that it
reached its destination.
`-, This was the fourth mission
/--` for Ms. Roth, and the second for
Ms. Hahn, both of whom col-
lected and delivered a previous
shipment of 33 tons of aid to
Bosnia in February 1995.
Deeply moved by the continued
devastation, they immediately
initiated another ecumenical,
grassroots effort under the aus-
pices of the Hadassah Nurses
Council. More than 100 com-
munities across the nation ral-
lied to obtain pharmaceutical
and medical supplies, linens and
blankets, as well as winter cloth-
ing, shoes and toiletries.
Through the personal in-
volvement and intervention of
the Secretary of Defense and
House Democrat leader Richard
Gephardt, this $10 million car-
go — large enough to cover an
entire football field — was
shipped to Bosnia on the Inspi-
ration; and it was met by the
three women in Sarajevo. Dur-
ing their five-day stay in Bosnia,

they held meetings at the Min-
istries of Health and Education
and with school and hospital ad-
ministrators and medical per-
sonnel to evaluate current and
future needs.
The Hadassah volunteers
worked closely with La Benev-
olencija, the Jewish organization
which has provided non-sectar-
ian aid to the people of Saraje-
vo since the turn of the century.
In addition to assisting with the
ground arrangements, La
Benevolencija also organized
two seders led by Rabbi Moshe
Tutnauer from Jerusalem —
one for the Jewish community
and one for Jews and non-Jews
alike. They were attended by
more than 300 people, including
the Archbishop of Bosnia, the
leaders from the Catholic
Church, Serbian Orthodox
Church and Muslim communi-
ty, and three Jewish IFOR sol-
diers.
La Benevolencija also ar-
ranged for the women to visit
the Isak Samokovlija Elemen-
tary School named for the na-
tionally-respected 20th century
Jewish physician and poet
Twelve hundred children from
all faiths attend the elementary
school.
For most of the war, the
school was in the direct line of
fire. During one four-month pe-
riod, 5,000 shells landed in the
area of the school. Thirty-three
children were killed, although
none while they were attending
the school; and 84 students have
been orphaned by the war.
Hadassah is exploring the pos-
sibility of creating a special pro-
gram between the 6,000 youth
members of Young Judea,
Hadassah's youth movement,
and the children attending that
school and other schools in the
Sarajevo area. ❑

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Hadassah workers are shown in front of a shipment of medical supplies sent to
Bosnia.

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