By Lawrence Faulkner

I returned to Kosovo after more than three months. This time I’m with Roberto Valerio, a Cure2Children board member, Miriam Davidovich-Befani, President SOS Infanzia in the World, and Veronica Brandinu, a professional nurse from the Pediatric Onco-Haematology Department of the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

Miriam organized for us to stay at the Villaggio Italia, were we arrived on Saturday 24th October on a civilian flight which made a stopover in Tirana, the Italian CIMIC (Civilian-Military Cooperation) kindly came to pick us up at Prishtina airport and took us to the Villaggio Italia, near Pec. A little over an hour on a road under construction, by 2014 Pristina and Pec should be linked by a 4 lane highway.

Sunday we rested. On Monday morning Dr. Ergyl Gafur, Department of Paediatrics of the Pec Hospital, joins us and we arrive in Prishtina around 9:30am. Waiting for us there are 20 or so families as well as our local coordinator Leonora Bajraktari and our data manager Gresa Abrashi.
We were very happy to see all the children with leukemia that we have followed since their diagnosis, the first children ever treated solely in Kosovo, they are doing well and their mothers seem serene. Leonora has done a great job following all these families and making sure that they lacked none of the necessities. We even saw some of the children with onco-haematologic problems which were initially treated in neighbouring countries such as Albania or Macedonia, others have been referred by the Italian peace-keeping force.
At the end of the day we discussed future programs with the medical department and the local associations. We explored the possibility of supporting CMIC to set up a core laboratory that would make Kosovo independent in the diagnosis of leukemia and other diseases with their responsible, Lieutenant Colonel Tedeschi.

We’d like to thank everyone and in particular Lieutenant Carmelo Chiolo for his kindness and availability.