wfn.org | Adventist Professors Assist Kosovar Refugees

["Christian B. Schäffler" <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

June 13, 1999
Adventist Press Service(APD)
Christian B. Schäffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland 
 

Andrews University Professors Assist Kosovar Refugees: 
Social Workers Invited by ADRA to War-Torn Region 

Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA.   As part of an 
effort to help Kosovar refugees deal with the traumas of 
war and displacement, three professors from the Andrews 
Department of Social Work recently traveled to Albania, 
where they conducted an assessment of the refugees' 
psycho-social and emotional needs.

Professors Rene Drumm, Shelly Perry and department 
chair Sharon Pittman were asked to travel to Albania by 
officials from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency 
(ADRA), one of the leading relief organizations in the 
war-torn Balkan region, to help determine how ADRA 
can continue to meet refugee needs.

After arriving in the capital city of Tirana, the professors 
quickly found that their academic credentials opened the 
door for interviews with social work professors at the 
University of Albania.  

"We had heard that a lot of relief agencies had tried to 
work with the university but failed," said Drumm, an 
assistant professor of social work. 

While at the university they sat in on senior seminar 
classes where they heard stories about the students' 
work among the refugees. A unique opportunity came 
up when they met and interviewed Hungarian academic 
Dean Ajducovic, one of the world's leading experts on 
post-traumatic stress among refugees. The University 
of Bucharest professor was in Tirana to conduct training 
exercises for UNICEF workers.

After two days of collecting information, the Andrews 
professors went to the Fier region in southern Albania, 
where they spent a day interviewing refugees in 
camps. The sites ranged in appearance--everything 
from dilapidated dormitories to makeshift tent 
cities--but they were all representative of the same 
tragedy which has marked the Balkan conflict from 
the onset. That tragedy, however, has not erased the 
resilience of the human spirit. "I was awed by 
the strength of the people. Despite all that they 
had been through, they worked hard to maintain their 
dignity and to keep their families together," Drumm said.

Work among the children of Kosovar Albanians 
proved to be the most challenging. Children were given 
crayons and encouraged to draw pictures. Rather than 
the typical scenes of childhood whimsy -- rainbows and 
rabbits and bright sunny days -- the children offered 
crayon renderings of tanks, gun-wielding soldiers, 
burning homes, dead bodies and urban mayhem. 
They also shared stories of killed or missing family 
members. "It was one of the hardest things I've 
experienced," said Perry, an associate professor of 
social work.  "We are still worrying about the life-long 
impact these events will have on their young minds."  

Interviews with women and the elderly also 
pointed toward severe forms of psychological trauma 
caused by harrowing flight and domestic dislocation. 
According to Perry, refugees are experiencing high 
levels of stress because they do not know what has 
happened to their relatives or what is happening 
with the war. "Even bad news is better than no 
news, so they need to get as much information as 
possible," she said. 

Before returning to Andrews on May 10, the team 
gave a verbal report to ADRA officials in the Albanian 
city of Fier, stressing the need refugees have for more 
information on the war and recommending that refugees 
who have suffered the most traumatic experiences 
receive even more targeted assistance from human 
service agencies.

Although social work professors are no strangers 
to human suffering, the three Andrews  professors say 
their Albanian experiences left an indelible impression. "At 
first we thought about what we had to endure to get to Albania," 
Drumm said. "But when we got to the camps and saw what 
they had suffered through, we were humbled. We had a 12-
hour taxi ride, but they walked for days on end. We 
complained about only having one suitcase, but they only 
had the clothes on their backs. It was humbling."