Fatmira likens peace clubs to groups of young birds that have the urge to fly but don't know how. Outside the nest it is dark, threatening, frightful and even violent. The young ones try to fly but they have no teacher and they are thwarted. They become discouraged. But still it is the time to learn to fly, somehow.
Fatmira is the girl who gave a World Vision staff worker the idea to start Kids for Peace clubs in the ravaged physical and emotional landscape of post-war Kosovo in 1999. She wrote a powerful poem about her sister and brother who went missing before the war and were never heard of again.
 "We are still grieving about our lost children but we encourage what Fatmira is doing," |
said Fatmira's mother Nazmije, 46, four years later in 2003. The culture of the Balkans is to treat vengeance as both a right and an obligation. It is a bold and painful step for Fatmira's parents to step outside both their larger culture and their personal grief to support her in her work with Kids for Peace clubs.
"Just after the war we were in a difficult situation in the transit centre," said Fatmira, recalling how she came to write her poem.
| "We were grieving over our lost brother and sister and I felt I needed to write something as I watched my family going through all that pain". |
I dedicated this to my brother and sister. One day World Vision organized a party at the transit centre involving all different communities. My sister was asking me to read the poem to all those people. I didn't want to share my pain with all of them but after other children read their poems I decided to read mine."
Freedom for Kosova"Freedom for mother Kosova
"Oh, big heart, how is it you don't melt? How is it you don't fade away?
"My joy faded away with my sister and brother. We grew up together, we played together.
"Why are we not together now?
"Where is that dreadful war we were trying to live through, to live through the massacres?
"Ever since the 20th of April when they were separated from our mother's love, from our hugs and our happiness, from the flowers...
"Oh God, I beg you. Where are they? Are they hungry somewhere in the prisons of Serbia? Are they somewhere in a massive grave?
"If they are in a grave, oh God, let us be proud. Let the world know the children of Kosova give their lives for freedom.
"It is very hard to remember. I wonder where they are. The school is here waiting for them. The teacher is here waiting for them. How can they answer?
"Are the children of Kosova dead? The children of Kosova need their mothers, fathers, teachers. Are they dead with only remembrances, with only the remembrances of their mothers?
"When father came back from being out of the country, his children were gone without him seeing them.*
"How can we ease all this pain? How can all these tears stop?
"Father has come back from outside. Kosova is free. Life continues. If they are dead, peace be upon them.
"Dedicated to my brother, Sami, and my sister , Sadete, with all the love, the tears and the pain and the desire for a very quick reunion."
*Fatmira's father, Hazir Feka, 52, worked as a waiter in Turkey before the war. He was away there when his son and daughter went missing. Photo: John Schenk (World Vision)
Recent photo of Fatmira Feka (15).
For further information about Kids for Peace Clubs and recent news on the situation in Kosovo see:
Kids for peace stand together when it countshttp://meero.worldvision.org/news_article.php?newsID=415Kosovo's hope for peace not silenced in chaoshttp://meero.worldvision.org/news_article.php?newsID=408Fatmira Feka, 15-a prime mover for peace in Kosovohttp://meero.worldvision.org/news_article.php?newsID=421First published on April 13, 2004, 16:18. Last updated on April 14, 2004, 13:57.
