Manchester Aid to Kosovo formed at the height of the ethnic cleansing crisis in the Balkans. Its founders were drinking a beer in their local watching the news on 2 April 1999, Good Friday. Watching the tragedy unfold, they decided they couldn’t just sit in the comfort of a Manchester pub and watch TV. They had to do something.
Three weeks later 15 articulated lorries loaded with humanitarian aid headed for the refugee camps just outside Kosovo.
At the end of the conflict, five children in the Bogujevci family were found by the British army. The children had each sustained multiple injuries in the massacre of their family.
They were medically evacuated to Manchester and became involved with MaK who agreed to the children’s request for a peace park in their home town. This 22-acre site has become one of MaK’s major projects and has involved the charity in long term post-war recovery in Kosovo.
Now with dedicated partner organisations and over 150 volunteers in Kosovo and the UK, MaK continues to work for the relief of poverty, sickness and distress through education, justice and human rights, art, music, drama, sport and medical aid.