CINNews Archives
Return to CINNews Table of Contents
CIN (webmaster@cin.org)
Fri,
27 Aug 1999 06:16:54 -0700
VATICAN RADIO CONTINUES TO SAVE LIVES OF KOSOVO REFUGEES
Case of
3-Year-Old with Heart Disease
VATICAN CITY, AUG 24 (ZENIT).- Thanks to Vatican Radio's service for Kosovo
and Albania, 3-year-old Ermonella, an Albanian, will be hospitalized in Italy with
congenital heart problems.
Ermonella Lakay's case was discovered by volunteers of the Scutari-Caritas,
during the humanitarian crisis caused by ethnic cleansing and allied bombs
in Kosovo. On the eve of August 15, during its "Balkans Special" program,
Vatican Radio made an appeal for adequate medical care for Ermonella. The
appeal was answered immediately by Florence's Mejer Pediatric Hospital.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also interested in Ermonella's
case. The Ministry told Vatican Radio it will speed up the bureaucratic
process for the child's residence in Italy, in cooperation with the Italian
Embassy in Tirana.
After the end of the war, al least 11,000 Albanian refugees from Kosovo
decided to stay in Albania. According to the Red Cross in Lombardy, among
these, 200-400 -- mainly women and children, need medical care or surgery
that the local hospitals are unable to offer.
Giuseppe Lanzi, director of the Scutari-Caritas caring for the "forgotten
refugees" of Kosovo, said that after Vatican Radio's appeal, two hospitals
contacted Caritas in order to help Ermonella. "We were greatly relieved,
when we received the fax. Her mother was here. We met this child during the
emergency in Kosovo. She was helped by Caritas-Spain, which had set up an
out-patients clinic to help people from Kosovo and Albania. We were told
about this case and, from the very beginning, had serious problems to have
her received abroad. As she is Albanian, she does not have the right to
political refugee status. We needed a hospital that would treat her for
free. Thanks to Vatican Radio's appeal, after a month-and-a-half, the
problems has been resolved. The Mejer Hospital will care for the child, and
Caritas-Florence for the mother."
At present, the Kosovo refugees in Albania are virtually forgotten by the
media, especially in the wake of the recent earthquake in Turkey.
International solidarity has lost its strength. Lanzi believes this is the
most serious problem Caritas faces, in trying to respond to the most urgent
cases.
Since Vatican Radio began its "Balkans Special" program, which was heard in
Albanian every night by refugees living in Albanian refugee camps, many
families who were separated because of the violence, received the necessary
information to be reunited, either in the refugee camps or abroad,
especially in Italy.
ZE99082405
--------------------------------------------------------
==================================================================
ZENIT
is an International News Agency.
For reprint permission, please contact
For reprint permission, please contact infoenglish@zenit.org.
Visit our web page at http://www.zenit.org/
To
subscribe/unsubscribe: http://www.zenit.org/english/subscribe.html
C.P. 18356
00164 Rome - Italy
Copyright 1999, Innovative Media, Inc.
_________________________________________________________________________
PUBLIC ARCHIVES: http://www.cin.org/archives/cinnews
* RULES: http://www.cin.org/maillist.html
CHAT: http://www.cin.org/cinirc.html *
MESSAGE BOARDS: http://www.cin.org/webboard
Sponsored
by CATHOLIC INFORMATION NETWORK (CIN) - http://www.cin.org/
and ST. GABRIEL GIFT
& BOOK NOOK - http://www.stgabriel.com/
SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE at: http://www.cin.org:81/guest/RemoteAvailableLists
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Fri Aug 27 1999 - 15:52:21