On 18th May, flooding emergency was declared in Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Heavy military choppers are flying over the flooded areas, saving those trapped in their homes. The town that was divided during the war, later rebuilt with assistance of International Community and still, due to its geopolitical importance remains in focus of International Community with a Supervisor, deputy High Representative, now is divided in two by the Brka river. The floods have completely isolated it from the rest of the world. The nearby villages of Vucilovac, Krepsic and Zabari have already been evacuated. City center itself flooded up to a third, every 4th citizen of Brcko directly affected by the floods. Most of those who lived in flooded areas found shelter with their families and friends in other "safer" areas of the town however the city administration had to organize a shelter for 850 citizens from Brcko and to take care about apx.1200 refuges from neighboring Croatia/EU. Photo bellow shows the city center with all three bridges that connect the city completely flooded.
A scene of people in the street celebrating the arrival of lorries with clay for barrages was a frequent one. The flooded Sava river that threatened the lives of millions of people in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. On the other side of the river, the water glistened in the flooded village of Gunja, Croatia.In Brcko, we were without water and electricity. The stores are quite empty but people could barely manage to meet basic needs. Our brave firefighters and police worked day and night often with just an half an hour of sleep for a day, completely exhausted. Rotary with our dear friends managed to help by getting through with lorries of food, water, hygiene packages, clothing, blankets and even financially however once asked the city fathers said that the number one priority needed is a speed boat with possibility to access on all sides of the both meaning even the front of it with aim to rescue the people in the water. This is were alliance between our club and the Governor and his team in Vienna came to expression: promptly once the project was written, the funds were approved and we started of in finding the best acceptable solution for the police. Together with the police, a boat was found that matches their requirements, with a trailer and it was purchased.
Therefore, we proudly submit the following report to you. We are sorry for the delay but it took us time to obtain the DVD produced and before to arrange all the specific details such as technical certification, registration of both boat and trailer, branding of the boat and to obtain clearance by the police for the usage of photos (since these are members of Special Response Unit of the Police of Brcko District of BiH) of the event - "The official handover of the Rotary Boat to the Special Response Unit of Brcko District of BiH Police".
The handover took place in Brcko, on 18th of October 2014. Another reason for a delay was that we wanted to connect the handover to Rotary activities so that we arranged a regional Rotary meeting with our friends from Rotary Club Zrenjanin (Goran Miskovic, Marinel Subu and Rasa Elekovic) and Rotary Club Zagorje KUM (Marina Kmet, Bojan Klenovsek, Bakhtyar Aljaf, Simon Kovacic and last but not least our dear friend Janez Lipec). This was more than a meeting, since local community through deputy mayor issued thank you letters, Red Cross of Brcko District of BiH also issued thank you letters and we remembered the project with youth exchange were in cooperation of fellow clubs from Slovenia and Serbia children from flooded area were sent to Youth Camp Mojca. The diamond of the event was the handover of the boat to the Police of Brcko District of BiH.
The handover took place at 12.00 hrs at the Police HQ with signing of a Protocol between the Head of the Police Mr. Goran Lujić and our Club's President Predrag Solaja in presence of deputy Mayor of Brcko District of BiH and the above mentioned Rotary Clubs from Serbia and Slovenia, our Club's members, other representatives of the Police and of course the media. During the ceremony the role of RD 1910, the Governor and his assistant Dijana was praised due to the diligence in dealing with this project. It was mentioned that the boat was actually handed over to the local police two months prior the event and that it meant a lot for the overall safety of the community since there was a recent threat from floods again. After that the actual handover of the Rotary Boat took place at the city's public harbor in presence of the above mentioned parties and the media. The boat was taken for the first official drive with Head of Police, Deputy Mayor, Head of Special Police Unit, President and the Secretary of the Club. after the ride, all other guest were invited for a short tour and presentation of boats ability along Sava river.
The project is carried out completely in line with project proposal.
The purchase of the boat took a bit longer since we searched for best value for money deal and we were able to get a fully functional boat with a trailer.
The idea to postpone the handover ceremony In order to connect it with a significant Rotary activity such as regional meeting of Rotary Clubs has shown itself as a great idea since it presented Rotary strength and synergy and it additionally drew attention of regional and local media but the public as well.
Local police has now strengthened it's capacity to respond to floods due to the Rotary engagement. As unforeseen benefit from the project, we have received additional requests for membership. It led to acceptance of the three new club members, Mr. Zoran Racic a local Government official, Mr. Ferid Bijelic the most successful construction company owner in Brcko region and Mr. Ibro Trumic - Grof regional entrepreneur. Another result is that we decided to create a media archive and to more intensively cooperate with media. The production of the promo DVD that covers all the events (commencing all the efforts regarding floods such as humanitarian aid/financial aid to Red Cross, youth exchange of the kids from flooded area and the donation to the Police of Brcko District of BiH).
Although we hope floods will never occur again, now we can say that our police is equipped and more capable to respond in matter of immediate urgency. Our Rotary friendship has strengthened so is our image and trust of the Community.
Our moto remains proven, "In Service to our Community"!
