17th of June - Obrenovac - Peace brigades
On Tuesday-17th of June, our Women in Black peace consisted of activists: Violeta, Vahida, John, Goran and Oluja, started at Marina`s house in Obrenovac. At her house we intended to break down the mortar of the walls. Before leaving, we collected the necessary tools and started the action. It was early in the morning, but we were all together. Outside, the drizzle rain, but the mood in the van was at height. We quickly arrived and immediately started working. We split into two teams: Goran, Oluja and Vahida worked inside. Their task was to strip away the layers of the wall in the hallway.
John and I had to strip the facade on the outside of the house. Soon came USA volunteers and for two hours were working with us. The rain was falling for a long time, but it did not stop us. We worked with enthusiasm. John and I made a strategy-I was stripping the lower part, as long as I could reach it, and John was on a ladder taking off the top layers. We were fast, since the wall was swollen by the moisture and large pieces of mortar were falling themselves.
It was harder for friends who worked inside...These walls have absorbed moisture, relatively were dried and was difficult to take off the layers of mortar and it made our work difficult, while swarms of flies flew into our eyes. Previous days there was not so many of them. Aunt Nata cried when she saw us do it. I kept thanking her for helping Marina. She wanted to be helpful and was washing the dishes.
John and I have completed the facade and went inside to help the other team. When I started working, I realized how important their job is and more difficult. After we finished, we had lunch together with our hosts. The atmosphere was good. We were joking around and cheered up aunt Nata. Soon, Vlada came to pick us with van. We were white of dust, tired and dirty. On the way back we were quiet... We were sleepy, and it seemed that each of us immersed in our own thoughts.
It was a successful action.
For Women in Black:
Violeta Djikanovic
16th of June - Obrenovac
Our two activists of Women in Black: Stasa Zajovic and Violeta Djikanovic, took on June 16th, our friend Carlos from Spain to show him how the city looks after the terrible floods. It was gloomy and smelled on rain: mizzle, dull, autumn rain...At Marina`s place we met her neighbour Nesa. He invited us all to his house. As neighbours they used to help each other before, and now it was inevitable.
Nesa`s yard is spacious with lots of herbs which are at the moment in a desperate condition. A long porch divided house into two parts: the part where his twin brother lives with his family and the part where he lives with his mother and aunt. On the porch was a lot of things that he is trying to save: his father's watch which was given to him when he retired, a large Chinese jar and lots of paints painted by Nesa himself.
There are prints, stained glass, pastels... He tells us his story... He came to Serbia after the operation `Storm` in 1995. Everything except the bare life he left in Croatia. For a long time they were tenants, and then they managed to sell their house in Croatia and buy this one Obrenovac. His brother got married and has two children, and Nesa lives with his mother and aunt, and he organized their household.
He worked, painted and tended his plants. He was satisfied with his life...Flooding has destroyed another part of Nesa`s life. Just in one night, everything he created for the past 20 years, is gone. He said: 'After the Storm I never went to Croatia and I never will, I have closed this chapter. After this, I have nowhere to go.'
The house is in poor condition because the water reached the ceiling and all over the repair and work is needed. Nesa is staying with friends, working illegally in a private firm, he has just a little time to work on his house. 'I'll try to save my paintings, it is the most important to me`-he added. Images are dried in a warped frames. He brought liquor for Carlos, in a bottle he painted. He gave to Stasa and me a painting.
It was important to him that we take it. And his story is similar to Marina's. Nobody has come to assess the damage and they have the impression that they are forgotten. As we were leaving, the rain was getting stronger. We thought: 'Rain again, now that the sun is most needed'...
For Women in Black:
Violeta Djikanovic
11th of June - Obrenovac
Women in Black activists Stasa Zajovic and Violeta Djikanovic have visited Marina and her family in Obrenovac.
'Since the temperature was high, the water withdrawn out of the city and dried of. However, the city still looks spectral. Balky trash is mostly taken out of the centre of the city. All over the yards one can see remains of parquet, which people use for heating fires to warm the water. Still there is no electricity in the town.
Marina tells us that still no one came to disinfect the streets and houses, and that the day before, under the mud in the yard of a neighbour, they have founded the body of a large pigs. She added that to this day no one showed up to assess the damage on their homes and gardens.
While we were sitting in the yard, Power Supply employee came to replace the electric meter. Our question was: `When will they be finally supplied with electricity, and when will they replace the electric wiring?'
We got the answer that they do not know they came just to replace the clocks. Marina tells us that they were deprived of information and ongoing support is only by the volunteers-Americans.
From the interview, we also learned that it is urgent to throw out the remains of scraped walls, which were previously stripped to the brick walls. She also says that there are no necessary tools nor trolley which would take it out. She needs the shovels and spades, because in part of the yard she has to remove a layer of soil, since the water is standing too long.
Recognizing her needs, we have decided to organize our peacekeeping brigade and come help her on Tuesday.
According to us it is obvious that there is a complete collapse of the state and institutional support system due to authoritarian form of government in this country.
For Women in Black:
Violeta
7th of June - The hostel in Bezanijska kosa
After the action 'Food Not Bombs', which was held in Nis and where Women in Black and increasing number of feminist organizations have expressed solidarity with the flood victims and demanded of the government to meet the basic conditions for return settlements, especially in Obrenovac, Stasa Zajovic went to visit Marina and her family.
Marina and her family are temporarily accommodated in hostel in Bezanijska kosa. That is the place from where she goes every day to Obrenovac to take care of her house. 'Couple of hours we walked along Dunav quay and talked... Though she is visibly in a better mood, she feels the need to speak about all of it, especially that they are abandoned, forgotten, and out of media-publicity focus. She mentioned that her `strongest impression are citizens of USA who have shown their solidarity and came to help.'
For Women in Black:
Stasa Zajovic
6th of June - Obrenovac
Two activists of Women in Black-Ljiljana Radovanovic and Violeta Djikanovic on 6th of June, 2014 have visited Obrenovac and the house of Marina Golubovic.
`Violeta and I went to Obrenovac and Marina. Two days earlier Violeta visited Marina in her house. We took lunch and some groceries. Approaching Obrenovac we felt strong and unpleasant smell of clamminess. Entering her yard a horrifying sight awaited for us. I felt sorrow and fear. On the left and right side of it, there was water of about ten inches depth and faded plants could of been seen. On the track was the stove, full of the remains of flooring, ejected from the rooms. A big pot of water was on it, in which she cooked and disinfected laundry.
There was also a decomposed table, four chairs, and a pile of dirty things. In front of the very entrance in the house, the army carried carpets, decomposed furniture, and households, for which there was no chance to repair. Marina silently watched it, with her eyes full of tears. When they left, she told us that each of those pieces she gained with lots of effort and that except the empty walls, she has nothing at all.
When we asked about her aunt Nata, she told us she went for help in local Red Cross. Soon, the old lady returned with a volunteer from Red Cross and a foreigner (USA) who came to help. Gary is from Texas and he came to provide help for people in flooded areas all over Serbia. He have asked what he can help. We said they should pick walls to the brick. In less then two hours, a group of twenty volunteers set to work.
During that time, a neighbor with a pump pressure was washing appliances and garden. He was washing the fridge, washing machine, stove. We have asked ourselves if it is going to work. Suddenly, the rain have started. Heavy downpour lasted twenty minutes. Marina was desperate. The stagnant water started rising.
We were helping Marina all this time to move the unnecessary and damaged things. It looked, though, that job never ends. Afterwards we had lunch together. So, we ate together and even laughed a bit, during our sweet lunch.
For Women in Black:
Ljiljana Radovanovic
4nd of June - Obrenovac
Marina we met in Kombank Arena. There is a collective housing. A week ago she started going to Obrenovac to clean around the house. June the 4th and I am on my way to Obrenovac to visit her house.
Accustomed to scenes of flooding, I went expecting to see the usual, but so far I have not seen it. This is totally different and much worse, I went dozen kilometers outside of Obrenovac. I am on the road to Umka, bags with sand are standing there. Traffic jam is huge, and the smell of stagnant water is in my nostrils. Fields have been converted to ponds: huge ponds standing.
I'm going to Obrenovac . The stench was unbearable, and is enhanced by the sun that burns. City looks ghostly. In places where the water receded, there is a dried, cracked mud, as after the cataclysm. Vegetation does not exist-there are just burned remains... A huge willow is uprooted by the force of water and protruding out of it. It seems that it used to be a park.
The town has no electricity. The streets are filled with the remains of furniture, which are collected. Everywhere we smell stench. The people that I see on the streets, the police and the army wear masks. I have the impression that I went to another planet. Everything I've seen so far, is not even a fraction of the disaster that befell on this small town.
I found easy the street where Marina lived. Entering her house an additional shock: a ground floor house, with no windows and doors, a garden full of broken furniture, parquet pile in the middle of the yard, which is now used for fuel. The house has a wood stove and a pot in which she washes some laundry.
Marina shows me her house and tells where things used to be. `In addition to these walls, I have nothing, and they have to be grabbing to the brick. In the part of the yard, the water seems not to be not be withdrawn. We cry together. She tells me that no one came to assess the damage, yet. She does not know what to do first. She and her son were have thrown by themselves all they could out of the house. She hopes that soon someone will come to take it away.
On the terrace, Marina's aunt Nata (90 years old) washes the dishes. The old woman wipes her tears. She can not believe what hit them:`What do I do, I'll wash everything that can be washed`-says Marina. She was very scared. She tells her story of housing in the Arena, the men who were like wolves circling around them: `I felt the fear to sleep in the great hall and that some things will be stolen. `If I just could have some sleep`- she says, finishing the story.
I'm leaving Obrenovac completely shocked, but with an idea in my head. To create a working group and help this woman, and Susanna, we had met in Bristol. Her water has not yet receded from the house either.
On the way out of town I pass the barrier. The smell of stagnant water I have in my nose for hours.
For Women in Black:
Violeta
2nd of June - Trstenik and Planinica
In agreement with my friend Sophia Pantelic, representative of the Commission for Gender Equality from Trstenik, six activists:Stasa Zajovic, Ljiljana Radovanovic, Violeta Djikanovic (Women in Black), Slavica Stanojlovic and Snezana Jakovljevic (Pescanik, Krusevac) and Jelena Memet (Alternative Center for girls from Krusevac) visited on 2nd of June 2014 the Grabovica village and village Planinica, near Trstenik. All three organizations have prepared and provided help of the perished in the floods.
Grabovica village is not far from the city center. Soon as we crossed the bridge, waited for us already familiar scene of desolation and mud, torrid gardens, furniture disclosed in backyards. We stopped entering the village, and residents have approached us curiously.
`Nobody visits us`-said an old lady. `Women where are you from?`...Soon, more and more people were on the street. All of them had feeling of being forgotten and that damage will not be refunded by anyone. Zorica from Moravska street, have said:`All that my family earned for the last fifty years, within half an hour was destroyed.` The same picture along the settlement. In the main street a truck which collects destroyed furniture. You can feel the smell of clamminess in the houses. It starts raining. We have visited twenty houses and directed ourselves toward Planinica.
From Grabovice to Planinica it is a ride of fifteen minutes. The scene already known. Gardens no longer exist, flattened corn, seared raspberries. We have reached Ljilja`s home by foot because it was slippery `cause of dispensed mud. Entrance to the court yard , which can be called a paradise on earth. A genuine Serbian yard with a house in the middle, hydrangea and rose bushes, fruit trees... I thought we were gone astray because everything was intact, as in the fairy tales. Lilja greets us and leads to another court yard. On the left side is covered with mud, extends the former plantation of strawberries. Small river in front of us, which in accordance with Ljilja`s story, when it is the largest, is two meters in diameter. That night, the river has grown to one hundred feet in width, carrying everything on its way, and changed the course of its own. One pole is completely torn out , you can see only the remains of the bridge.
We sat with Ljilja in front of the house. She tells us how the night was. She wants to tell you even more but her neighbour is crying. She has washed away all the raspberries. She does not know what to do. Raspberries are a serious source of income. No one came to access the damage. We went to Belgrade. We are quiet in the car. We gather our impressions.
For Women in Black:
Violeta
29th of May - Smederevska Palanka, Karadjordjevo settlement
Women in Black-Ljiljana Radovanovic and Violeta Djikanovic, visited for the second time the inhabitants of Karadjordjevo, near Smederevska Palanka.
During their last visit, we found which are the most urgent needs of these people, and what to do since they can not find it in help organized by the Red Cross. Accordingly, we provide food for ten families (oil, sugar, flour, rice and macaroni), bedding and clothing.
First of all, we visited Zehra, and provided her with linen, blankets, towels, clothes, because in her storey house, everything was destroyed by floods. We have found out more about problems connected to delivering of humanitarian aid. The premises of Red Cross are seven kilometres distanced from where they are. They have to go by foot all the way there, and when they reach it, it is uncertain what will happen. They wait for three hours while the help is being delivered to the volunteers, their families and friends, those who are not victims of flood. What remains is delivered to population in jeopardy. Zehra also told that some people who have helped her around the house, stole from her purse nitroglycerin spray, without which she is in danger. As he talked about it, we've seen her tears.
Lilja (Women in Black), who is also a heart patient and without nitroglycerin is not going anywhere, pulled out a spray from her purse and gave it to Zehra, saying:' I guess I do not need it until I am back home.`
Again we went to Gordana. A similar story we heard from her. When arrived shipment of new shoes, she and her family did not get anything. For a while we stayed with her and her neighbour.
On the way back we saw the ravaged gardens and orchards. It seems that it all fell apart.
For Women in Black:
Violeta
26th of May - Kombank Arena
In accordance with feminist ethics of care, but first of all with needs of women to whom we provide help, we have spent whole day and with her kids from Obrenovac, who were accommodated in Kombank Arena. We have decided to get out of collective accommodation. We walked through New Belgrade and listened to each other. Marina talked of the atmosphere in `Arena` and sleepless nights, great noise caused by the Red Cross volunteers and other people accommodated there. We have realised the need for conversation as a priority in comparison with material help, and that Marina and her family are excluded from the help, even it is the one which insults ones dignity. So we organized ourselves again and took new thing to her and her children.
We believe that it is necessary to appeal not to bring humanitarian aid which further humiliates their dignity. Instead of taking out of the closet used and worn clothing, we help more with buying a new, cheap clothes, or by bringing clean, ironed clothes.
For Women in Black:
Maria and Stasa
24th of May - Kombank Arena
We have reached Marina through our friend who does not live here. She asked me to go and visit her. We met in front of Arena and went to a cafe near by. Marina is confused, frightened and upset...Incommodiously she starts talking her story. Marina is a teacher. She left Kosovo with her children and husband in 1999. They came in Obrenovac and decided to stay. With the help of their parents and their little savings they bought the unfinished house and began to live in it. Soon after her husband was ill, suffering four years and died. Marina was left alone with two children . They promised her employment, but everything was just the promise. She worked as a saleswoman, looked after the children, cleaned the house. Her children are good students. They had a dog and a cat.
This very day her sister informed her that water is coming. Within 15 minutes her house began to fill up with water. She packed her documents in a rush and went to the neighbours who live on the floor. She spent the night there, totally wet. Tomorrow they came to evacuate them. She left in the last tour, totally flooded Obrenovac, because she gave priority to women with little children, elderly people ect. First, they accommodated them in one club in Belgrade, and then in Kombank Arena. All three of them were sick. In Arena are lots of people accommodated and they do not receive cooked food.
Mira and her children we have found in `Zlatibor gradnja` barracs in Surcin. Approximately hundred of people are accommodated there, mostly Roma population. And they are all behave as real neighbours. While we were sitting with Mira, people were coming and asking how was she. People take care of each other. Mira speaks freely:`The injustice is what kills me. Nobody takes care of us. We receive only dry food, and everything which directed to us as humanitarian aid finishes in the stocks of Red Cross. When the blankets came and we saw them, they could not avoid giving them to us.` Marina`s shoes are pinching. So, Mira gives to her shoes two sizes too big. At least her feet will not be in pain no longer.
We are leaving and sisters say their farewell in tears.
Today I spoke to Marina. She found out that her house is still flooded. The return is still uncertain.
She says they will be moved from the Arena and adds: 'Viki, somebody stole those athletic shoes of mine!'
For Women in Black:
Violeta
24th of May - 'Bristol' hotel
Due to International Day of actions for peace and disarmament, activists Danica Pupovac and Goran Lazin have visited people from disadvantaged areas, who are still in this hotel.
'All thier stories are mostly similar, but each of them is sad in its own way. A lot of strenght is needed to discuss with these people. We have talked longer with Nikola Sekulic from Obrenovac, who is a refugee from Obrenovac on Saturday, 17th of May.' He was evacuated by jumping from the terrace into the boat, because the water level was very high. Nothing was left to him.
He is not very optimistic when it comes to a fast return, rebuilding houses, and especially not when it comes to state government. They are the most concerned about the weather conditions which influence their return, as well as what they will find when they return.
He expressed his desire to join the Women in Black.
For Women in Black:
Danica i Goran
23rd of May - 'Bristol' hotel
Activist Danica Pupovac and activist Goran Lazin just went for the third time in the hotel `Bristol` and volunteers of the Red Cross personally handed over a few bottles of `Asepsol` disinfectants.
They took also out of the Cultural Center REX and B92 Fund, for further distribution, 2 hygienic packages and two packages of disinfectants.
For Women in Black,
Danica and Goran
23rd of May - Smederevska Palanka, Karadjordjevo settlement
Women in Black activists-Stasa Zajovic, Ljiljana Radovanovic and Violeta Djikanovic were visiting residents of Karadjordjevo settlement, near Smederevska Palanka. `We took first aid, hygiene products as well as cleaning and disinfection products. As we were approaching the settlement, the sight was more and more terrible: flooded gardens, pumps which draw water, roadside kicked wet furniture and carpets. We have stopped beside one of the friable houses to ask the address we were looking for. We were greeted by Zehra and her husband, who are subtenants in the house, and they were completely confused.
In the yard they put wet furniture, trying to dry it on the sun. Zehra hopes she will manage to save it because she can not afford another one. Their daughter studies in Novi Sad. Zehra says:`They hate me...but this man takes care of me and watches over me. Inspite of all the difficulties and misunderstanding of the environment, they are still together, thirty years already. Zehra says they will manage, but believes that the bosses will get help for the repair of their home, and that they-as subtenants will not get anything. They talk to their friends in Vienna to send them a van with furniture, but everything is detained at the border, and the Red Cross did not get anything, yet. Zehra tells us that all bedding she had was destroyed by water and literally they have no where to sleep.
We are leaving.
They are grateful and say that we are the first ones who come to them.
Afterwards we met Gordana, who we have reached through our Aleksandra from Women`s Autonomous Centre. We entered Goca`s house which is wet and with stains all over the walls showing us the scale of the flood. We noted that the walls are clear and they said that they painted it just ten days before the flood. Her husband and two sons are cleaning the mud all around the house. The water slowly withdraws, and emaciated crops can be seen in the garden. `All of the crops have been destroyed. I have been four days on the floor with my husband and a neighbour. The kids were in town. I am sick`-says Gordana, who follows and respects the work of Women in Black, since she used to work for TV Jasenica, as organizer. In the meantime she was left out of job. Her husband as well. Cherry harvest is work from which they are mainly earning for living, in June every year. The duration of the harvest lasts for 16 hours and 10-15 days. While she is engaged in the harvest, her husband (who had surgery and heart disease) goes picking raspberries each year in Arilje.
Goca took us to visit twelve families. Those were mostly Roma families, displaced from Kosovo and the most poor local families. Goca is afraid that it will be the same as in July of 1999, when all of their properties were destroyed by floods, and they received a generous assistance by the state-5000RSD. She told us about her only survived chicken, out of 17 she had, and about her fight for life. She said: `I'm going to put it in the golden cage!' We parted with a promise that we will soon see each other. Despite all of the difficulties, she greeted us with a big smile.`
For Women in Black
Violeta, Stasa and Ljilja
22nd of May - 'Bristol'
At the same composition as the first time, we went to the hotel `Bristol`. This time we took the items for which they have told us as needed. It was mostly hygiene products, baby food, biscuits and snacks for children. We have handed it to volunteers. Women in Black left a phone number and identity numbers of their activists. We informed them to contact us when they need something to be transported by car or to bring them the missing goods.
In the office was present hotel manager, who confirmed that the hotel immediately was at disposal of victims of the floods and that at this moment there are 55 persons accommodated. Again, we talked with a couple from Zabrezje-Suzana and Darko. We asked Darko if he got the call to return to his home. He said he tried to find out and it is not yet possible, because the parts of Zabrezje are still flooded.
They complained about the conditions in the hotel. They only pointed out that they need clothes for warmer days. What they received upon their arrival at the hotel were clothing for cold days, but the weather changed, and now they lack summer clothes, shoes and so on. While we were still in the hotel, volunteers from Bristol called Violeta and asked to transport several packages of clothes to the hotel 'Slavia'. So she did it immediately.
For Women in Black
Violeta, Snezana and Ljiljana
21st of May, 2014. - Visit to people in jeopardy, Kraljevo city, Grdica settlement
Ljiljana Radovanovic and Violeta Djikanovic have visited people in jeopardy, in Grdica settlement, near Kraljevo.
On this very same day, we have delivered personal hygiene products for cleaning and disinfection, one of our Women in Black activists from local Network and our direct contact with residents of Grdica, waited for us. Entering in Grdica settlement we saw pile of furniture people have thrown out of their houses. Everything was still wet, decomposed and dirty. There was an overrun of mosquitoes, mud and stink. We started along the river, to visit houses which are on the bank, because those houses were submerged the most.
When we stopped in front of the first house and presented the organization we are working for, the reception was cordial. One man directed us to visit families of refugees who left Kosovo 1999. So, we provided help for twelve families and talked to them.
The most striking was a visit to a family of Zika Radojcic who lives with wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. When we arrived his wife cried, because everything she worked for and economized all her life, was destroyed in twenty minutes. They said they have just recently recovered from the earthquake, and now they are facing a new disaster. She never went for a holiday in order to economize, and now all of it is ruined. Also, a night before the flood she came back from her oncologist. Her parents live in the same settlement, by the bank of Morava river. They barely dragged them from their homes because they are old and infirm.
As we directed ourselves toward the river, the sight was worse and worse. We went through the narrow road with difficulties, trying to bypass the trucks, which were loaded with decomposed furniture. We could not enter the courtyard full of water, and people were throwing mud with shovel. All of them were telling the same story, that nobody visited them yet, nor they were provided with anything useful for them. They were provided with water and cannikin. Inside of cannikin were 4 plastic sacks, garden shovels, the package of nails, needles and safety pins.
But what gives hope, we could see solidarity among them. When we brought package to one of the families, our host said he has enough already and it should be given to a family which lives across the road, because they are poor and have six children.
People were thankful, because we were the first to visit and talked to them.
Women in black
Violeta and Ljiljana
21st of May, 2014. - Visit the hotel 'Bristol', where are accommodated evacuated citizens from Obrenovac
Violeta Djikanovic, Ljiljana Radovanovic, Snezana Tabacki have visited Bristol hotel where 47 people are placed, sice they have been evacuated from Obrenovac. First, we talked with Dejan and Susana, young married couple from Zabrezje, near Obrenovac. We learned that they were evacuated on Saturday along with two children (Nemanja and Filip). They confirmed that they were flooded in less than half an hour by Kolubara and Tamnava river. Their house is normally close to Sava river, but the flood came from the other side. For the evacuation they have been waiting for almost an hour in the water, due to small number of boats and almost four hundred people who wanted to evacuate.
As a family with small children, they had the advantage, and they were determined to accommodate in hotel 'Bristol'. They are not completely satisfied with the accommodation though they have a room, food, and hygiene at a solid level. Dejan would nevertheless like to be back as soon as possible in Zabrežje and determine how much the house was damaged, which was recently completed and fully equipped . Susan, however, considers that they need to stay in a hotel until their return is completely safe. They are not depressed, although they are aware that their financial situation has changed significantly.
After our talk with Dejan and Susan, we conducted an interview with the volunteers of the Red Cross. We introduced ourselves as Women in Black, and explained that we wanted to bring help, but we're not sure what is the most needed . They advised us to bring hygiene and care products: shampoos, deodorants, hydrogen, cream, after shave cream, asepsol, as well as baby food and packages of snacks for the kids.
We have anounced our next visit for 22nd of May, when we will come again and deliver humanitarian help.
Women in black
Violeta, Barchi, Ljiljana
