Two groups try to provide activities for kids
By Jason Straziuso
Fortunately for bored boys and girls, a couple organizations are trying to provide some activity and a bit of normalcy. The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and an Israeli volunteer youth group have set up activity areas for kids on opposite ends of this camp - a camp so large it takes 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other.
The ICMC has one small tent where kids ages 3 to 15 get to attend one hour of "school" each day in age groups. During class a teacher stands at the front of the tent while around 40 kids sitting on the ground take turns reciting poems or drawing.
Almost. Although UNICEF has donated school material and an alphabet and mulitplication table hang on the front wall of the tent, the kids aren't really going to school. There isn't enough space and there aren't enough teachers.
"We need more space and it's very hot now for the children," said Misherefe Jerstena, one of ICMC's teachers hired from nearby Skopje. The lack of school has parents in the refugee camp worried.
"I am very concerned," said Kadri Sopjani, a refugee with three kids. "They are very young and after we leave here it will be hard to catch up."
The kids like going to school. Every child is on his or her best behavior. There is hardly any squirming during poems or songs. All of the kids love to draw, which for some, is a way to deal with the trauma they've been through.
"There are different ways to help a child cope, and it's not always through education," said Joanna Wedge, another ICMC leader, who said the children seem a little lost at times.
"This doesn't look like home," Wedge said. "The fields they used to play in don't exist."
Hanging on the fence, almost like a real school, artwork is displayed. It's often violent. Pictures of soldiers, tanks and burning houses outnumber the placid drawings of flowers and birds.
"It seems like all the pictures they draw are about Kosovo, which is to be expected," Wedge said. "We encourage them to draw things a little less traumatic, like trees or the sky."
"They're all aggressive. I watch them and see they are very aggressive," Ali said. "They are demoralized because they've been removed from their home three times."
All the kids say they like going to school, even if it is just an hour a day.
"I miss my home. I miss showers, and my friends," Kaestroeod said.
Silvia, a 10-year old girl said she alwasy goes to school, and likes reciting nationalistic poems about Kosovo. She drew a tank bombing her house. Last year her home was burned to the ground.
On the other side of the camp is the "Israeli School," as it's known. Here, there is more room to run and the kids play a lot of games.
"We're trying to make a regular life for them," said David, one of the Israeli volunteers, "so they don't have to be with their parents all the time."
The volunteers fly in for 10-day shifts before being replaced by another team. The activity area has been operating for about three weeks for three hours in the morning and afternoon. The kids and the volunteers play active games together, defying language barriers with wild hand motions and games familliar to all backgrounds.
"Being here is very hard and gets harder everyday," David said. "We're making the kids smile."
Every afternoon there is a play. Snow White, The Three Little Pigs and Puss'n Boots have each already made their Stankovac debut. Actors from Pristina, also refugees here, have been recruited to help perform.
Even adults come to the performances, just for something to do. The daily schedule gives kids and parents alike a break from each other, but the volunteers are there to interact with the kids.
"They're looking for attention all the time and they don't want to leave when it's over," David said.
Until the next day of school, there are four small basketball courts and a ping pong table in the camp, all provided by ICMC. A small stream runs through the corner of camp, providing a nice afternoon swimming hole, although it is quickly drying up. When it does, there will be plenty of marbles to be played and ropes to be jumped -- and an hour of school each day.
"I think the children are happier," Jerstena, ICMC's teacher, said. "I think they forget what they saw in Kosovo when they come (to school), and that is good for them."