Manchester Aid to Kosovo formed at the height of the ethnic cleansing crisis in the Balkans. Its founders were drinking a beer in their local, the Britannia Inn, Urmston, watching the news on April 2, 1999, Good Friday. Watching the tragedy unfold, they decided they couldn’t just sit in the comfort of a Manchester pub and watch TV. They had to do something.
Football went right out the window even as their beloved Manchester United was clinching the Treble.
Geoff Mullarky led the project. Overwhelmed by the scale of the response, Geoff approached a local church. He received immediate, invaluable support. Geoff worked flat out, along with his brother Chris, mates Eamon Allen, Alan Jones, Denis McGloin and the men’s former teacher Malcolm Wright, the church, and an ever increasing team of volunteers. In Kosovo the crisis escalated.
Imperial War Museum: Through My Eyes Howard Davies
Malcolm was chosen as first chair of Manchester Aid to Kosovo. 47 collection points were quickly established in Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire. Within days the Britannia was full to bursting and, a real life-saver, the Cop-op offered MaK an empty supermarket across the road.
Geoff flew to Albania to co-ordinate the aid needed on the ground. The founders were greatly supported by Dennis Wrigley and Linda Stalley, leaders of Fixton Fellowship. Loading was a huge operation. The army helped, in plain clothes, working right through the night. Three weeks after the initial ‘Brit’ decision to try to do something to help, on April 25th, 15 articulated lorries left the Trafford Centre for refugee camps over the border in Albania. The MaK convoy, with 34 class A drivers, together with several medics, paramedics and social workers, left the Trafford Centre loaded with 300 tonnes of donated blankets, sleeping bags, clothing, food and toiletries.
During its 3,000 mile round trip the humanitarian convoy, the largest to cross Europe since the Second World War, was severely tested. Chaos in blocked ports tested everyone’s patience and stamina to the limit. But the aid got through. Evicted ethnic Albanian Kosovars hung onto life in desperate conditions. 850,000 were forced out of their homeland.
MaK provided emergency supplies for refugees evacuated to the UK and collection and sorting moved to Manchester airport Freight Terminal. Veronica, then in her 70’s, headed up a team which sorted and packed donated goods for 12 months. Thousands of shoes were sent to the camps. Veronica prayed over each pair. Within 18 months 1,000 tonnes of crisis aid had been collected, sorted and transported.
MaK rallied support from musicians.
Our first ‘gig’ was at the Trafford Centre for fuel costs, as the convoy left Manchester. Little known opera singer Russell Watson and American gospel diva Deronda K Lewis lifted the roof! A MaK single was produced, of ‘Let Love Live Again’ by Helen. And it did. (see ‘To Hell with Hope’ Paul Guest convoy diary) ‘.
MaK’s role altered as refugees started to be flown to the UK. In 1999 hundreds of traumatised Kosovars were evacuated to the UK. Manchester, with its excellent hospitals and with surgeons eager to help, received special needs medical evacuations. Amongst them were the Bogujevci family, children flown to Manchester with multiple gunshot injuries. The five cousins aged 6 to 13 years survived the massacre, in a domestic garden, of 21 women, children and elderly men, in Podujeva, NE Kosovo. Eight members of their family and eight close friends died. The Bogujevcis asked us to create a peace park in their hometown of Podujeva. School and social support were provided in Manchester – a Manchester nightclub collected for a holiday. Friendships deepened.
Now graduates from UK universites, Saranda, the eldest, is on our committee. Jehona designed this web site.
In 2000, at the invitation of Manchester’s Mines Advisory Group, we attended a field trip to Kosovo with MAG and the Imperial War Museum North – this beginning MaK’s long-term collaboration with both organisations. A full year after the end of the war we witnessed the critical injury of two little boys from a landmine during a game of football. From that point onwards the legacy of landmines and UXO and the need for safe play influenced the development of MaK’s work and MAG gained lasting support from our friends in the music industry.
Our relationship with the Manchester Music industry grew. A Manchester album was produced, ‘Cohesion’. Over the last thirteen years MaK has received support from Manchester’s finest including Elbow, Doves, Mr Scruff and New Order. Twisted Nerve got behind the cause and Badly Drawn Boy played for MaK, remixed a rare early recording for us, auctioned his first gold disk and beloved woolly hat, and agreed to be our patron! British army surgeon, Lt. Col. David Vassallo, who evacuated seven Kosovar children with severe gunshot injuries to Manchester, agreed to become patron alongside Damon.
Whilst continuing to support Kosovars in the UK we were asked if we could support ongoing recovery in Kosova. Between 1999 and 2003 an international effort co-ordinated by the UN led to dramatic recovery from the legacy of invasion and bombing – roads and bridges were mended, houses and schools rebuilt, hospitals equipped and clean water supplied. After distributing our initial humanitarian aid we collected 5,000 books, many donated by Manchester University. These helped replace a gutted library in Podujeva, and also went to Mitrovica and to Prishtina University. We transported donated medical supplies and supported landmine clearance. Enabling children to play again was important. In collaboration with Truce International, 1,000 footballs were taken out for school children.
As the international community began to prioritise legal processes, Milosevic was arrested in Serbia, extradited to The Hague and died in prison. Seeking justice for Kosovar survivors of ethnic cleansing involved co-operation with The Hague and the Foreign Office and work in the UK, Serbia and Canada in relation to war crimes trials.
MaK was asked by the evacuated Bogujevci children in Manchester if we would create a peace park in their home town, Podujeva, an area in North East Kosova close to the Serbian border which suffered greatly during the war. We agreed. The children decided to call it the Manchester Peace Park as a living symbol of love and hope they had received in Manchester. MaK’s ongoing aid programme now focuses on Podujeva ‘s schools and its health service.
At the first MaK social event on October 10th 1999 all refugees in Manchester reception centres were offered coach transport (funded by New Order’s Bernard Sumner) to the Ritz. Newly evacuated Kosovars met friends and neighbours to catch up with news. The refugees slowly began to dance again, this time to the music of Turkish musicians followed by Mancunians Aziz Ibrahim, Elbow, Homelife and Jane Weaver. Music has remained central to MaK.
Still volunteer led, now with growing team of over 100 volunteers in the UK and Kosovo, MaK continues to support recovery and development in the region by resourcing schools, running annual children’s summer clubs, giving medical support and developing sport and arts projects. The 22 acre Manchester Peace Park the children wanted in Kosovo is nearing completion and used by the whole community. MaK has a thriving children’s programme in Kosovo involving hundreds of children and teenagers.
The Bogujevci children were supported to bring to justice many of the Serbian unit who killed their family and friends.
With dedicated partner organisations and over 100 volunteers in Kosovo and the UK, the charity continues to work for the relief of poverty, sickness and distress through education, justice and human rights, art, music, drama, sport and medical aid.
