Divided Mostar united by humanitarians: Aid for Hamza and Matea

While Mostar politicians have been dividing this beautiful city on the Neretva for the past 20 years, Mostar humanitarians are uniting it, and very intensively, writes the BH news agency Patria.

There are several humanitarian associations in the city that help socially endangered fellow citizens or those who need considerable sums of money for treatment. Good Mostar citizens do not look at religious affiliation, meaning they do not consider whether their fellow citizens in need are Bosniaks, Croats, or Serbs – they help everyone equally.

Thus, Mostar citizens gathered around the Facebook group “Humanitarian Auctions Mostar” have been collecting money for two weeks, which they then hand over to one of their fellow citizens who needs money to solve a life problem. They often collect money for those in need from neighboring cities as well.

On Monday, slightly more than 1,400 KM was paid into the account of 12-year-old boy Hamza from Mostar. Hamza is a seventh-grade elementary school student, and he is fighting the most significant battle of his life at the Hematology Clinic "Jezero" in Sarajevo.

About 20 days ago, this boy was diagnosed with the most severe form of leukemia and was urgently transferred from Mostar to Sarajevo.

Father Nedžad works as a painter seasonally, and his wife Aida is unemployed. They have two other children younger than Hamza.

Mother Aida is currently in Sarajevo, where good people and friends have provided her with accommodation because she has to be with her son at the Clinic every day, while Nedžad has come to Mostar to take care of the other two children.

Noble Mostar citizens also helped Matea Proleta, a 7th-grade elementary school student from Stolac, at the beginning of March. Matea lives with her parents and sisters in a family house in Hodovo. The girl is seriously ill and needs spinal surgery, and she previously had heart surgery. The only option her parents, mother and father Ivan, a baker in Hodovo, have is treatment in Germany, and that surgery costs 55,000 euros. The parents are unable to raise the money themselves, so the help of noble Mostar citizens was very welcome, writes Patria.