Still suffering, years after war (From Penarth Times)

Still suffering, years after war

A PENARTH man who brought charity to the homeless in Serbia has spoken of his "humbling" experience in the country.

Nick Osbourne, who was town mayor in 1982, visited war-ravaged Serbia at the end of April.

And the company director of Wasons says witnessing at first hand the poverty of hundreds of families out there was something he will never forget.

Explaining how his trip came about, Nick said: "I saw an article about Aid and Hope Direct, an organisation that has done many trips to Kosovo and Serbia.

I had some spare time on my hands so rather than take a holiday I contacted them.

"I went with a convoy of about 30 people. Of those, five were from the Vale, and between us all we took five 38 tonne lorries out there and 10 seven-and-a-half tonne lorries.

"To send one lorry costs £3,000 and that's the money I had to raise.

I put ads in the shop window and local people were a great help because I only had three to four weeks to raise the money.

For example, the women in Dinas Powys Golf Club made up shoe boxes and the men's section raised £160. In the end, I had a surplus of money, which I'm putting towards another trip."

Nick took incubators, food, clothes and shoes to the needy and what he saw will live with him for the rest of his life.

"There was no middle man involved, so it was very rewarding for me to go out there and meet the people who needed the aid and see how grateful they were.

"I felt pretty humble, I saw how bad things are at first hand.

I saw some groups of six who had spent the last seven years of their lives living in a motel room.

It was quite frightening: there are a lot of displaced people out there.

"It's all a result of the ethnic cleansing."

If you would like to help Nick with his next trip, phone him on 029 20 705713