Churchwarden Martin Hiley spent 4 weeks working with a relief agency in Bosnia - the experience changed his view of aid.
Bosnia
"I landed on the coast at Split in Croatia and crossed into Bosnian territory," explains Martin. "The team lived Livna, but worked fifty miles further up the valley in Grahavor." Driving to work each morning took them through an area where every village was simply a collection of burnt out shells of what had once been homes - no roofs anywhere. Even in November there was already snow on the ground.
Martin found a general feeling of hopelessness: "people seem reluctant to face and invest in an uncertain future over which they have no control". He also discovered that aid is complicated. "How do you give one person aid and then say to someone else that they are not entitled. All sort of tensions are created and sometimes you felt that selective aid had the potential to open old wounds and restart the war."
Bosnia
And who are you going to get to distribute aid on the ground? Locals who may be biased, or outsiders who don't fully understand the situation? "I am afraid that I came back much more cynical about aid. It is not as simple as it sounds when we put coins in a box", said Martin.
But there were flickers of hope. "One old lady I met had was living in a lean-to over her well and adjacent to her destroyed house. She had water and shelter but no electricity or sanitation. The UN had provided her with a wood burning stove, bedding and food. She hoped that her family would return and find her some day."
