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LET THE SUNFLOWERS BLOSSOM AGAIN !!! (update 3)
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Please email, snailmail, fax, telephone this appeal around in the world.

update 2 with the sunflower idea can be found at:
http://www.ddh.nl/fy/kosova/nederland/1999/wam0504.html

Balkan Sunflowers
c/o wam kat
Postfach 1219
D-14806 Belzig
+49-(0)33841- 595 33 (88 fax)
wam@mir.org

or

Centar za Mirovne Studije
(center for peace studie)
Vanja Nikolic
Zagreb
vnikolic@zamir.net

Intro
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Slowly the initiative "Let the sunflowers blossom again" is growing from a
chaotic personal initiative to a better coordinated action. At this moment
we are establishing an coordination office here in Germany and thanks to
personal financial supports in the last few days, we also have the money
together for the first expensives.

First group of International Volunteers to Albania and Macedonia
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If this initiative continues with the same speed as in the last 5 days, it
is very good possible that the first group of volunteers already will be
able to go working in refugee camps around the mid of May. This may sound a
bit disappointed for those who rather would like to go today instead of
tomorrow, but the whole action has to be prepared well otherwise the
international volunteers will rather work negative instead of positive.

And within the coming weeks the war will be slowly disappairing from the
daily media, but refugees will be still there. And especially them our help
be worthfull.

Please if you already know at this moment if, wenn and how you will be able
to join this first teams (or later teams) send a message to me wam@mir.org
or vnikolic@zamir.net with this information, your ages, your proffession,
etc. So we can start planning.

Pathfinders
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Before the first group can go there we however need a group of about 10
socalled pathfinders. People who are able (time, energy and money) to go
directly to Skopje or Tirana in order to report from there what the
situation in the refugee centers look like, where we will be able to start,
building up the network on the ground. If somebody has this possibility
please contact us.

Important among other things is to make contacts with local and national
authorities and care-takers of the different refugee centers in order to get
the agreement to be able to work in those centers at all. In Croatia and
Bosnia SunCokret (Sunflowers) worked in 35 or more centers and we never had
big problems in getting the green light for coming. But still it has to be
done poperly.

www.balkansunflowers.org
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Not yet, but within the coming days this address will appair at the
internet,  although I have got some help here already it will be still
rather be a lot of extra work to do all the design and update work from
here. There for if somebody wants to help that way, please react.

What kind of skills should int. volunteers have
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The last days I get a lot of mails from people who musicians, theater
players or makers, painters, asking me if they can be of any help. Most
people think that helping in refugee camps means that we need technical and
medical skill, building up tents, creating water supplies, healing people,
etc.. Although SunCokret had it own medical aid part, and helped with
building of camps, the basic work was however totally different. A specially
people with creative skills are wanted. The big organistion like ICRC,
UNHCR, IRC, Care, Cape Anamur, Medicines sans Frontier, etc. are mostly very
cape-able (after some starting time) to take care of most of the basics. So
please don't hesitate, especially creative people are needed. F.e. if you
are able to make theater, even without words, this would be beautifull. Or
if you can make video films with kids. Or sing songs. Or are good in sports.
Or knows everything about making pottery. Please thats what we need.

Traumas
-------

Another point is that people ask me about, is about the trauma's. Let me
tell you one thing this people are normal human beings. They went through
and are going through a very traumatic experience and ofcourse professional
help in this field is needed. But believe me after the Bosnian war I learned
that there never be enough people around the whole world trained in trauma
crisis intervention who are able to cover this problem. I already found a
few trauma crisis intervention experts who are willing to help to set up
some training programms for volunteers, and more are ofcourse welcome and
needed to join this action.

But you don't have to be a mind doctor to work with (traumatised) kids. We
may not always be able to cure traumatic experiences from the past, we are
however cape-able of preventing a few from coming up.

I don't know a word Albanian
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To be honest, I also still have to learn my first Albanian words, already
started to learn it a bit from Kosovo Albanian refugees who already live
some time here in Germany, but that wouldn't be much. When I came to Croatia
I didn't knew the languages as well, after almost 5 years this changed
ofcourse a bit. Nevertheless not knowing the languages never have been the
problem, as long as the volunteers among eachother at least speak or are
able to speak at least in the same type of language (my english is by far
perfect).

You will notice how many (at least) young Kosovarian speak or at least are
able to understand english or german (also french, but less) or any slavic
language. But if not they have the time and the will to learn it from you.
All over Bosnia former refugee speaks english with accents from all over the
world, thanks to SunCokret (Sunflower) volunteers.

And ofcourse there are always way to communicate, you will notice how much
you can tell with your face, your hands, your body and your feets. Often a
total new experience.

Not speaking the languages can even be an adventage in some way, if you
would be able you also will hear every sad story, about what has happened
with each kid, each women, each men in the last months and years. And that
is not always easy. You will see enough, also without understanding each
story.

Regional and national contact points
------------------------------------

In the last days people took over this initiative and started to organise
networks in their own region. It would be good if I can include in the next
update a lists of this regional and national contact points, so please if
you or your organisation mail this to me, in order that I can include that
addresses in the next update.

Contacts in Albania and Macedonia
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The first contacts in Macedonia are getting on it�s way, in Albania we are
still looking for contacts, so if some of you have partner organisations
there, or friends, or whatever, please inform us.

Individuals and organisations who support this initiative
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Although a lot of persons, by sending me a personal email have expressed
that they support this initiative we would like a list of more or less known
people (from political, churches, unions, human rights, etc, organisations
activities, or winners from (alternative) nobel peace prizes), who support
this idea. If you are such a person, or know such a person, again please
inform us so we can draw up such a support list. That will be helpfull in
the near future in order to get official support.

Bankaccount
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Although the whole organisation is working in full speed at this moment, it
will take a few days more to open a special bankaccount. Again when your
organisation has already such a possibility than notify so that I can
include it in the next update.

Media and press
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The internet is a very strong and powerfull media, still it's outreach is
limited to those people who co-incendently got a message like this and
reacted. Therefor it was nice to be contacted by different journalists from
television, radio and newspapers in the last days. Among a lot of not so
international know medias there was f.e. the new york times, who wanted
information about this initiative. Allthough I am what you can call a kind
of believer of the internet, I am very happy when newspapers take over this
initiative and write about it. We need the widest support in every possible
way.

Spreading this information
--------------------------

Still people ask me if it is ok if they spread this information, my answer
is clear and simply, please send it to anybody, any newsgroup, translate it
in each languages, form or leaflet, since you will be surprised how many
people want to help. I have messages back from different countries were they
already translated everything and spread it around.

I want to help, but not to Balkan
---------------------------------

The first and biggest help at this moment is spreading this information.
Lets get this message to the right persons. But ofcourse you also can start
support activities, by taking over the travel cost of somebody who wants to
go, but can't pay it. Or for the paint, paper, pensils, balls or what ever
is needed in those refugee centers. And ofcourse a bit for the infra
structure to coordinate all this, sorry but it is one of those things.

Experiences of old SunCokret volunteers
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I didn't have the time to go over the whole internet, but I know that lot's
of the former SunCokret volunteers wrote stories or kept open diaries (like
the Zaged Diary) online. Were you can read how the first Sunflowers started
to blossom.

Nonviolent
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It maybe not even needed to be said, but still, this is a strictly
non-violent initiative. It is also non-nationalistic. Simular projects like
in Croatia and Bosnia took in Serbia, and some of this project still run or
were still running up to about 15 days. It is there to help the victims of
war, not to support or take part in new ones.

THANKS SPECIAL ALL SUNCOKRET, NEXUS, ARK, PEACEHOSTEL AND PAKRAC VOLUNTEERS
(and EYFA ACTIVIST) IT IS GREAT TO SEE THE NETWORK IS STILL ALIVE WHEN WE
NEED IT.

Wednesday 7. April 1999
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Today it is almost precisely 7 years ago that I started a small action in
Zagreb, the town in those days was full with sandbags, althought the war
more or less in Croatia was over, UNPROFOR just arrived and this situation
of relative peace would stay on in Croatia untill 1995, but that is another
story. Anyway I started to put sunflower seeds in those sandbags and within
a couple of weeks everywhere in Zagreb you could see small sunflower coming
out the sandbags and searching their way to the sun. The slavic word
SunCokret also means "turning towards the sun". When fastest and biggest
flowers were not bigger than 50 cm the town started to remove all the
sandbags and slowly the athmosphere of war disappaired from the daily
townlife.

In the main time we started in the Anti War Campaign office in Zagreb the
initiative with human sunflowers in refugee centers. After a preparation
time of 3 weeks, we started the first three camps in the biggest refugee
camps around Croatia and stayed there for years. This happened in the spring
time like the real sunflowers. Just a little smile.....