Bosnia war survivors help Ukraine, share survival tips

Bosnian War Survivors:  It doesn't take imagination to understand the suffering of the people of Ukraine for the people of the city of Gorazde in eastern Bosnia. Three decades ago the Bosnian Serbs bombarded their city with rockets and cannons from the surrounding hills. Then he had suffered extreme hardship for more than three years.

The long siege during Bosnia's 1992–95 inter-ethnic war had cut off Goražde from electricity, food, medicine and access to the outside world.

The people there found creative ways to keep the lights on and keep themselves warm. Now he is sharing these survival tricks with the people of Ukraine. Ukraine's power grid has been destroyed due to Russia's continuous missile attack and citizens are forced to live in darkness and cold. 

Help was sought from the governor of Goražde

Edin Kulov, governor of the Goražde region, said the friends and acquaintances had worked for the EU mission in Bosnia in Sarajevo. contacted them late last year and asked for information about a humanitarian effort to provide Ukrainians with alternative sources of electricity.

He especially wanted any pictures, photographs, video recordings or anything else about the small power plants used in Gorazde in the 1990s.

Edin Kulov said the plants consisted of paddlewheels mounted on wooden platforms in the house along with electric generators. Locals lined them up around a bridge across the Drina River, where barrels and ropes kept them afloat.

Each plant had a main supply cable running from its generator to the bridge. From where electricity used to reach the buildings through small cables.

Therefore, residents living close to the river had enough electricity to light bulbs, listen to the radio, and occasionally watch television. 

Engineers did amazing

A small group of mechanical engineers and electricians built the first prototype. His clever, but simple design helped people build engines, alternators, condensers and mini-plants from scrap materials retrieved from Goražde's bombed factories, vehicles and houses.

Ways to escape will be shared with the people of Ukraine

Survivors of the siege helped to keep the city, and eastern Bosnia was never captured by Serb forces. The equipment was removed and destroyed after the war ended. In response to the European Union's request so many years later, Kulov said the city collected everything it could find.

He asked people in Bosnia for documents and memories that could be found on the radio. It was reported to the EU Mission in Bosnia, which has shared it with Ukraine.