Archive file

VIP No. 3, October 12, 1993

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Volunteers Information Pakrac

Adress:
  International volunteers working camp
  Pedagoska Skola
  4355 Pakrac, Croatia
Fax & Phone:
  00385 46 84 007 (Mark "Volunteers camp")

a) Situation Report
-------------------

Because the UN security-council decided to prolongue the UNPROFOR
mandate for another six months, the situation is now much calmer than
before. There are some new shops and the food-supply for the people is
getting better.
On Saturday, five new volunteers arrived. Four women, two from Germa-
ny,
one from Italy, one from USA and one guy from The Netherlands.
Lynette from England, who was already here for a long time, came back
to continue her work.

b) Volunteers Activities
------------------------

1. Reconstruction & Support:

- Working Groups
The volunteers work together with three local working groups. Two
groups were in Lipik (a village near Pakrac) and one in Pakrac. After
a long time we could do "real" reconstruction work, building a roof
for an old woman's house.

- Furniture for Primary School
On Thursday and on Friday, we helped to carry donated furniture into
the rooms of the primary school.

- Children's Playground
The work on the playground is in progress. We started to make the
swings, but to finish these, we need some wood protection paint. We
hope to get it from Zagreb. The material for the seesaw is also ready.


2. Social Activities:

- English Lessons
We got new English-teaching books so now we can improve the level and
the continuation of our lessons. Lynette from England, Gauthier from
Belgium and Petar from USA are now in charge for this.

- Games with Children
We made contact with Suncokret office in Zagreb to ask for different
materials, needed for children activities inside (winter is coming
soon).

- Fashion Show
The fashion show was a great succes. Even HTV (The Croatian TV) came
and made a short report about it for the sunday news. A problem was
that the room was too small for the more than one hundred spectators.
Some volunteers which took part in the show were not aware of it
anymore (Pivo, Pivo).

- Football Match
Last Saturday we organized a football-match between Argentinian
UN-soldiers and a colourful team of volunteers. We managed to make
three goals (one of these in our own goal), but the problem was that
the
Argentinians made ten. So we nearly won. First time we saw also the
humans behind the uniforms and the blue helmets.

3. Volunteers Radio:

As every week on Thursday the volunteers have their own program
from 17 o`clock till 18 o`clock on radio Daruvar. It was fun again.
The program next week will be used for the introduction of the new
volunteers.

4. Ideas, Plans and Projects:

- Football Tournament
There will be a football tournament at the 23rd of October. Three
local teams, two Argentinian teams, one UN-police team, one team from
the local school and, of course, the famous volunteers team will take
part. We also want to play in mixed teams.

- Room for Activities
Now we have the possibility to use Papiga (a pub in Pakrac) for
organising disco/dancing, workshops, boardgame-evenings or whatever we
can do in a room.

- Discussion on Radio Daruvar
We have the idea to use the hour on Radio Daruvar for a discussion
with local people about our work here, the situation in Pakrac and
what they miss in their daily life.

- Making Musical Instruments
We have plans to make musical instruments with children and using them
for a
playback show. Theatre with children is another option, practical in
winter time.


c) Letters and Donations we got
-------------------------------

- Thanks to UGAP, a French company, which provided furniture for the
  primary school.
- Ginette, a former volunteer from Switzerland, collected two hundred
  DM for the children's playground. Thanks.
- A local factory donated some materials for the seesaw in the
  playground. Thanks also.
- Thanks to Dan, Claire and Jacque for the fax from Scotland, and
  Turi's letter from Mostar.


d) List of Needs
----------------

- Boardgames
- Water color & brushes
- Big-sized paper
- Finger paint
- For friendship bracelets
- Brush for toilet
- Gips for masks
- Clay to make sculptures
- Badminton Games
- Tools to repair bikes
- Replacement parts for the bikes
- More bikes
- Insulation material for the attic in the new house
- Minibus

Money donations are always welcome !


             "If someone has no smile, give him one !"

               The Pakrac volunteers, 12.10.1993