Macedonia Gathers Cash, Sends Aid, to Stricken Neighbours

Convoys contain fresh water, food, sanitary necessities annd clothes

The Macedonian Red Cross said that some €260,000 had been gathered through the humanitarian telephone line that is still operational as well as from tickets to humanitarian aid concerts, events and theatre plays.

The Red Cross said it had also dispatched several convoys of trucks containing fresh water, food, sanitary necessities and clothes.

"Our job is to prepare the shipments and hand them over to the Serbian and the Bosnian Red Cross so they can distribute the aid according to their own assessments. The same goes with cash donations. They are transferred to their accounts, and they decide how the money is spent," Marina Mateska, from the Macedonian Red Cross, said.

The most recent convoy of trucks carrying some 120 tons of food and other aid for flood victims in Serbia and Bosnia left Macedonia on Monday. The next shipment is currently being packed and will be sent by the end of this week.

The aid that arrived directly from the Macedonian government so far amounts to an additional €300,000. The government allocated €100,000 to each of the three flood-hit countries, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.

The government has also sent rescue and relief teams and equipment to the flood zones alongside members of the Macedonian armed forces.

“We are doing everything we can to help and we will continue helping to coordinate the relief action here in Macedonia. We urge everyone to join in if they have not done so already,” the government spokesperson, Aleksandar Gjorgiev, said.

The waters that flooded towns and villages in Serbia, Bosnia and parts of Croatia earlier this month caused dozens of deaths and forced thousands from their homes.

As the water slowly subsides, it is estimated that the damage...

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