Byzantine Sacred Art: Orthodox Icons and Iconography

Harsh Kosovo winter with no heat for Serbs

By Very Rev. Archimandrite
Nektarios Serfes
President of the
Decani Monastery Relief Fund USA
November 2004
Boise, Idaho
USA

It's freezing in Kosovo and Metohija and our warm Christian love is needed... please! More then 12,500 families in these regions are in the need of food.

Dear Friends In Christ Our Lord,

May the great peace and love of our Lord God always be with you! Now that it's November, the weather in Kosovo and Metohija is becoming severe, especially at night, and many people are already freezing. Thousands who are cold are in need of our assistance and warm Christian love. It will get even colder as the days proceed into December, January, and February.

We here in America simply turn up our thermostats or light our fireplaces to keep warm. But there are no heaters or fireplaces for thousands and thousands of families in much of Kosovo and Metohija at this hour! It is estimated that at least 12,500 families are now in need of firewood and food!

Thousands of people there no longer even have proper shelter because so many homes have been damaged or destroyed. We should not forget that 10,000 homes have been destroyed since the war began; many were destroyed as recently as this past March (2004). Not many of these have been repaired and so large segments of the population are still living in deplorable conditions at this time. Many Serbian citizens who were displaced by the recent violence have not been allowed to return to their homes at all. They remain homeless, surviving as best they can under extremely difficult and uncomfortable conditions. Those least able to obtain adequate supplies of firewood and food are children and the elderly and so it is these who are suffering most.

The Red Cross has indicated that in Kosovo and Metohija more then 12,500 families are depending on humanitarian aid. These persons have been displaced by the realities of war and "ethnic cleansing" carried out in the region since March 25, 1999. Many more were added to the rolls of the needy and dependent during the most recent atrocities, perpetrated in March of this year. These desperate individuals and families are barely hanging on in the villages of Ossjane, Bicha, Grabac, Belo Polje, Suvi Lukavac, Podgorce, Novake and Sredacka Zupa, and of course also in Decani, and Pristina.

Now food supplies are becoming exhausted. The Red Cross further reports current stores of about 10 tons of food. That amount is only enough to meet the needs of 300 at-risk families during November. We cannot allow these supplies to completely run out; we must help by supporting the Decani Monastery Fund. Let us pray the hour is not already too late!

Already shortages are forcing parents to go hungry in order to provide meals for their children. Many people are eating only once a day or even less often. For many elderly, pensions have been cut and they no longer can afford what supplies of food and heating fuel are available.