Stefan's Story -
The Background
Jon Knighton

The tragedy of war  often unfolds  over many years stories that give us all hope for the future. Miloc Savic is a farmer who lives with his wife, and extended family in an isolated  village called Lactase, near Banja Luka. Miloc also works for the Multi-national Brigade HQ known as the “Metal Factory”, home to several thousand troops.  He was quite badly injured in the Bosnia  war, suffering lacerations to his right arm and  leg. But he was a lucky one who survived. But this story is not about  Miloc.

It's about his four year old son, Stefan, who we found  kicking a football around the farm yard with his  older sister Nada. A happy boy growing up in a loving family trying, like so many others, to put behind him the savage war which tore  Bosnia  Herzegovina apart in the early 1990s. But Stefan, who was born in January 1999 has a badly disfigured face, the result of scar tissue from a life saving operation he had at birth. For two years his family have looked for a way to make his face better and found a clinic in Paris that could help. But the cost was more than 100,000 Euros, money the family simply don’t have, Miloc earns less than  150 Euros a month. 

Four months ago “B” Squadron  the 9th/12th Lancers arrived in Bosnia from Hohne in Germany. On an early patrol in the Lactase area Sgt Wayne Ingram got to meet the local chief of police who told him about Stefan and his family. After meeting him Wayne decided to spearhead an effort to get the boy the operation he needed. 

In that time, Wayne and  his B Squadron colleagues have got to know the family very well. He found out that many people in the area wanted to help, through donations and loans.

 The Bosnian Defence Minister leant his help as did a local Gold Dealer. Interest-free loans and  donations collected much of the money needed. The 9th/12th Lancers set up a fund to coordinate all the monies raised.

The London Hospital for Sick Children at Great Ormond Street agreed to help Stefan and the surgical team, led by Dr David Dunaway, said they would give their time for  free. Stephan has become a very popular boy with the British soldiers, who regularly visit him. His sister Nada wrote a very moving letter after she met Wayne for the first time and found out that something could be done for her brother. She wrote:-

“My name is Nada, I am six and my brother Stefan is 4. He is smart, he knows all his numbers and letters but before he starts school, he needs an operation in England so that he can have a pretty nose like mine. But it costs too much money. One day we got a visit from a good man. His name is Sergeant Wayne Ingram, he told us that in his country  there are lots of good people who could help my parents raise the money we need. My name in English means “hope” and I hope that all the good people will help my brother”

Among the men who read Nada’s letter was trooper Chris Harris, a 26 year-old single soldier from Northampton. He’s built up a special rapport with Stefan and often goes up to the farm to see him. Chris says:- “Stefan’s a lovely lad who has so much spirit. He just gets on with it and makes a difference to all of us when we see him”. For Miloc and Slavenka, Stefan’s parents, the worry has always been that without the surgery, their son would suffer terribly when he started going to school.

So far in his life Stefan has not had to worry what other people think of his disfigurement, but the school playground would be too much for him. But now they have hope that heir boy will be treated just like everyone else. Miloc says:- “it will make such a huge difference to Stefan, he will be able to have a normal life, so he won’t be teased about his face by other kids when he goes to school.” And the boy’s father now describes himself as the happiest dad in the world, delighted that so many people, both his neighbours and British forces, have helped make it happen.

Stefan faces a few hurdles including the operation itself which will be in October, a few weeks after the 9th/12th Lancers end their tour of duty.

In many ways this little boy is another sign of hope in a country that has made rapid strides since the dark days of the war, not least because it is the local people themselves who have contributed most of the cash needed for his operation. For the SFOR soldiers all the villagers in Lactase have been completely won over through helping Stefan's family. The soldiers are seen as 'friends' by the whole community, something money can't buy. The 9th/12th Lancers return to Germany in September, a month before Stefan's operation. But their hope is that by the time Stefan starts school in January 2004, he will indeed be, in the words of Wayne Ingram, "Just like all the other kids".