THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607180119
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 204 lines
IN PRIJEDOR, BOSNIA, Hazim Majkovic, 47, was a man of some means.
Outside the town, he had a working farm with 58 sheep, three cows and an orchard of 40 plum trees. He had started building a home for weekend retreats on the bank of the Sana River. In the nearby town, he owned a three-story building, two floors of which he rented out, and a butcher shop where his eldest son, Adis, 23, worked. Hazim had put in more than 20 years as a government electrician and his wife, Lazarka, 48, worked as a waitress.
Then came the terror of war.
Today at a Beach hotel, Hazim and Adis are washing dishes for their living.Lazarka, called Lala, cleans rooms at another motel. Along with their youngest son, Denis, his wife, Tanja, and child, Sara, they are living in a three-bedroom apartment off Bonney Road.
The family's arrival in the area this spring, and the fact that all six members are together, came about through the generosity of Emmanuel Episcopal Church and an unusual series of events.
The idea to help a refugee family was born in 1994 when funds were appropriated in the church budget for 1995. The first of several challenges faced the program when the project coordinator fell ill in early 1995. Interest began to wane, and only two or three people attended a meeting to discuss moving forward with the refugee project.
Vestryman Roger Hungerford, who was in favor of the project, went into the quiet of the chapel to pray. Even his wife, Liz, busy with her tutoring business and youth ministry, had begun to have doubts that they had the necessary time for such a project.
``It was like `What do you want me to do now Lord,' '' said Roger, a Norfolk police corporal.
When he left the sanctuary, he had a clear impression of a calling on him and his church. Along with a core group that at times was only a handful, the couple helped their church keep its eye on the goal until it became a reality.
It took persistence.
More than a year ago, the group began working with the Virginia Council of Churches and the Episcopal Migration Ministry, which works with the Department of State and the United Nations to identify needs and arrange sponsors for refugees found in camps around the world.
The Hungerfords went to work, budgeting, making lists and determining what kind of support the project needed. Each time they determined a need, they posted a sign-up sheet on church bulletin boards and the need was met.
Though the work has taken countless hours of personal time, nobody is complaining, least of all the Hungerfords. In their faith, the couple found the inspiration they needed for the job. While the ``declining support'' model they are working on is aimed at making their refugee family nearly self-sufficient in just a few months, currently Roger and Liz can be found on the phone almost continually, handling the endless details that go into helping the immigrants succeed in their new country.
Liz controls the master schedule to assist the church in helping the refugees meet their needs. She knows who goes to the dentist when, and who's driving them. She can tell you when food stamps come out. (The family receives food stamps but no welfare.) Her lists show who donated a toaster and who's baby-sitting when the family goes to English class.
Among other duties, Roger has taken on the role of driving coach. None of the refugees knew how to drive before arriving in America. Denis and Adis were the first to receive a Virginia driver's license, and Denis will be the first to drive the car that has been donated for the family.
``We've seen a lot of little miracles with this project,'' Liz said. One of them occurred when she went to the Central Library to find a Bosnian/English dictionary. She happened to mention the source of her need to a librarian only to find out that her husband was Croatian and could provide help.
The refugee project's next test came soon after church officials contacted the VCOC to accept a young couple they had decided to sponsor. For its first try at refugee sponsorship, the church would be hosting Denis Majkovic, 20, a Bosnian from Prijedor, and his wife, Tanja, 23. On a Monday in February, after Roger had proudly made that call, he received a call from the VCOC. The two had become three. Tanja was the happy mother of little dark-haired Sara.
News quickly spread in the church. The sponsors-to-be began to feel like grandparents, aunts and uncles. Sara's birth was a blessing to her family in more ways than they could have realized at the time. The cuddly baby and the tragedy of Bosnia tugged on the hearts of church members like Annabarbara Bolles and her husband, Jim.
``Basically, I was having problems dealing with the situation in Bosnia and I thought by doing something on this end it might help.''
They housed the young family for their first month here. Many other church members felt similarly touched. Involvement in the program has swelled to include more than 75 volunteers and countless contributors of funds and other gifts from the 1,000-member church and other local churches.
All that support was crucial.
When Denis, Tanja and little Sara had been here for only a week, the next test of Emmanuel's resolve to help them came. Liz Hungerford received a call.
Denis' parents and older brother were soon to be on their way to the United States. Because of scheduling difficulties, another local church was unable to accept them. Liz made Emmanuel's phone list buzz. They had only four hours to decide if they would extend themselves further than anticipated, a second time, or let a church in Connecticut take up the challenge. The family would be split up once again.
``It's an awesome responsibility watching out for someone coming from another country like that,'' said the Rev. Bill Starkey, a retiree and Emmanuel's honorary associate priest. ``We stepped out in faith and thank God we did. I think that was the right decision, and I think that has been borne out.''
Organizers quickly made adjustments, securing a larger apartment and planning for the additional assistance that would be needed to employ, support, and train three more prospective citizens.
Denis and Tanja were childhood sweethearts but never expected their first home would be in a refugee camp. At their last camp home, near the village of Gasinci, Croatia, the couple shared a bunk bed in a building with as many as six other people. During the day, the guards let Denis go into town where he could work to supplement the rations provided there. He brought food back to pregnant Tanja each day. Sara was born in the camp Jan. 27.
Denis was the first in his family to find protection in the refugee camps and worked to get his father, mother and brother into one also. His father and Adis were survivors of Omrska, an infamous ``concentration'' camp run by the Serbs. (Having signed up with the Red Cross as potential witnesses in any war crimes trials, the family has asked that some details be kept confidential; they are concerned that there may be reprisals even here in the United States).
Hazim said he believes that three to five thousand of his countrymen were slaughtered in the camp.
These days, he is reluctant to talk about his ordeal. There are still the dreams that plague him almost nightly. His church sponsors hope to get him counseling to help. He has shared several incidents with his new friends, and one recent evening, the family retold one of these for a visitor.
One night at Omrska, several Serbian villagers showed up with rifles and were allowed to take Bosnian prisoners from the compound. Hazim was among them, he said. As the group was leaving, a guard who had befriended Adis recognized the man who was his friend's father. He told the men to leave Hazim behind and they did. None of those taken out that night ever returned.
Adis' hands bear the scars he said were from burns made by the cigarettes of his captors.
Perhaps the greatest of the little miracles Liz Hungerford has seen in this experience is the outpouring of support that came from within Emmanuel and other Episcopal churches. Members donated countless hours of help with tutoring, shopping and baby-sitting as well as enough furnishings to not only fill the family's apartment but generate $700 when the excess was sold. A few of the greater donations include a car, thousands of dollars in dental work performed by Dr. James Schwenk and full optometry services from Dr. Howard Kahn.
Recently, the Majkovic family and their supporters began planning a picnic so they could thank everyone who has taken a hand in their progress here.
``We are very active in our church and we know a lot of people, but when we looked over everyone who has volunteered to help so far we found names of people we'd never heard of,'' said Liz.
Emmanuel's priest-in-charge, Julia-Dorsey Loomis, recalled one special moment recently.
``We had a play in May called `Celebrate Life,' a musical about the story of Jesus. When Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus fled to Egypt to escape Herod's persecution it was Denis, Tanja and their baby who played those parts. When they appeared on stage, it brought tears to a lot of eyes in the audience.''
The Majkovics are unfailingly grateful to the former strangers who have been like family to them since their arrival here. If they are not working, they attend services at Emmanuel each Sunday though all except Lala are of Muslim descent.
But there is bitter with the sweet. Back in Bosnia, Hazim's aged father and mother sleep each night, without beds, on the floor of a school in Zenica. Lala thinks of them every day. They all lived together in Prijedor, and she wishes they could be with them in their new country. She hopes another church can sponsor them.
While they are confident of their sons' abilities to make a life for themselves here, both Hazim and Lala worry that at their ages, they might have trouble making a new start.
Denis, who works for an air conditioning firm in Chesapeake, is glad to be here. He is grateful that his daughter will grow up in peace and have a good future here. Adis looks forward to working again as a butcher and becoming fluent in English. He wants to find a way to help the people in Bosnia, where many still do not have money or food, he said. His mother hopes he finds a good wife.
While they embrace their new country, they do not forget what is behind them. They said it is hard for them to understand how the world, especially America, stood by when so many were suffering, when they could not even purchase arms to defend themselves.
When describing her feelings about the Emmanuel sponsors, tears came to Lala's brown eyes. Through interpreter Ervina Sablak she said: ``When I learned of this in the refugee camp in Croatia, I was so excited to come here. When I landed at the airport I was so tired, but then I see all the people with all the flowers and everything and I think I will die. If I could take my heart out, I would give it to them. For four years, I was in a hell. For four years, I could not sleep. Now I can sleep.'' MEMO: For more information, call 499-1271. ILLUSTRATION: Photos, including color cover, by L. TODD SPENCER
Tanja Majkovic, left, and her husband, Denis, greet church priests
after services at Emmanuel Episcopal in Virginia Beach. ``It's an
awesome responsibility watching out for someone coming from another
country like that,'' said the Rev. Bill Starkey, center. ``We
stepped out in faith and thank God we did.''
Adis Majkovic, 23, bears scars on his hands from burns made by the
cigarettes of his captors Omrska, an infamous ``concentration'' camp
run by Serbians. Adis holds his 5 1/2-month-old niece, Sara, who was
born in the Bosnia refugee camp and served as inspiration for
Emmanuel Episcopal's attempt to help the family.
Photo courtesy of Red Cross< This Red Cross refugee camp in Croatia
was a haven for many like the Majkovic family, who lived there for
eight months. Up to eight people slept in one of these buildings.
Sara Majkovic was born there on Jan. 27.
Lazarka Majkovic, 48, and her husband, Hazim, 47, are the proud
grandparents of Sara. Lazarka, a former waitress, and Hazim, a
government electrician, are now working in Beach hotels.
KEYWORDS: REFUGEES BOSNIA EPISCOPAL CHURCH by CNB