5 hours agoThe touching story of Kosovo that stepped on the mine lost its leg and hand when it was only 12 years old
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)During the recent war in Kosovo in 1998-99, over 1,000 children were killed. Many were killed and disabled after the war ended, mainly by mines and other explosive devices. On Friday, June 4th, the International Day of Children Victims of Aggression is marked. Elmi Xhema from the Kosovo Forum Community [...]
Elmi Xhema from the Kosovo Forum municipality was only 12 years old when she lost her left leg and left hand.
It was May 2001, when he stepped into a mine located by the Serbian Army in his backyard during wartime.
Elmiu now 32-year-old plays basketball in the school yard where he had followed classes until fifth grade.
From the day he stepped into the mine, he left school and never returned.
When I came out of the house to play... ..and I ran into the mine, I fell into it, I didn't know anything, but it was white. Now the house went out to see what was done, then I didn't know anything until I was sent to the hospital... I knew what happened to me. After this happened to me, I didn't have the will to school, and I lost my motivation, and I left it entirely”, says Gemma.
His first foot prothesis was done in Germany with the help of a German humanitarian organization, as his nine-member family was unable to finance her son's recovery.
It was a little joy when I started walking, to put my foot down (on the ground), because I had some fear of letting it go”, he relates.
The fate of Elmiu has been seen by many other citizens in Kosovo who in the postwar years suffered from mines.
According to the Association of Civil Wounds from Mines, about 2,100 people were injured by rescue vehicles after the war ended. About a thousand of them were children.
Seventeen people have lost their lives from mines, and 450 have lost their feet, hands, or eyes.
