Lejla ran a charity marathon in Sydney, donated money to Srebrenica mothers

Lejla Šeperović was born in Germany, where her father Ekrem Travničanin and mother Ljubica from Zadar met. Lejla spent part of her life in Germany and another part in Great Britain. Today she is happily married to an Australian, Simon, with whom she has a three-year-old daughter, Liv, writes the Patria news agency. 

She has been living in Sydney since 2008. Her connection and love for Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are great.

- I have always felt a great closeness to Bosnia, even though I was born in Germany. I am very sorry when I see that we as a nation can never get out of this post-war situation. My family in Travnik is relatively helpless, and we always help them. 

When floods hit BiH last year, I decided to run a full marathon of 42.2 kilometers in Sydney to raise aid. And I succeeded in that. I immediately transferred the collected 3,500 euros to help the flooded areas, says Lejla.

This year, Lejla repeated her humanitarian mission. She ran a marathon, and decided to donate the money raised to the mothers of Srebrenica.

- In July, I traveled to Croatia, but I wasn't sure how to travel to Srebrenica. How to find those women to whom I wanted to give help? When my godmother Ešefa Ibrulj contacted me and told me that a bus was leaving from Mostar for Srebrenica, I knew that was the solution.

We arrived in Potočari at 10 AM, on the day of the funeral. I was confused by what I saw there. How to approach those mothers? Fortunately, my godmother Ešefa was with me.

And we started talking to the oldest grandmothers in the cemetery. We met 10 of them and I gave them about 1,000 euros.

I decided to give 500 euros to Adela Šabanović, a young man whose tragic fate we read about. Thank God there are very good people who trust me that the help will reach the right hands and without hesitation when I run marathons, they donate their money, says this young and successful economist.

Already, Lejla is thinking about next year. She will probably run a marathon again, but she hasn't decided yet where and to whom she will donate the money. She only knows that it will be in her Bosnia and Herzegovina.