Orphans Help Father Cope With Grief

KAKRINJE, Bosnia-Herzegovina —  Balancing in the saddle, 10-year-old Razija Ramulj squeals with joy as the chestnut mare twitches and then lets her stroke its tousled mane.

Teachers and classmates crowd around to applaud the mentally handicapped girl’s efforts to caress the horse, and 72-year-old Jean Claude Carreau cheers the loudest, his husky “Bravo! Bravo!” booming across the farmyard.

There is tragedy behind Carreau’s joy.

He set up the Land of Friendship and Peace foundation after a pilgrimage to Bosnia, where his son, a U.N. peacekeeper, had been killed in a 3 1/2 -year war that saw organized rapes, ethnic murders and the worst massacres in Europe since World War II. Retracing his son’s steps to “try to understand why he died and what this war was about,” Carreau talked to French peacekeepers and visited an orphanage.

He could not forget the children. “I met those kids ... “ the retired French naval officer says, choking up. “I realized then that there were so many reasons to stay.”

Seeking to heal his sorrow, Carreau, along with parents of other U.N. peacekeepers slain here, founded the Luxembourg-based Orphans of Bosnia to provide vacations, scholarships and other support to Bosnian orphans. On a foundation trip to France, he noticed that war-traumatized children who’d had trouble communicating made progress after interacting with horses -- and his next project was born.

He used $490,000 in savings to buy land in Kakrinje, six miles from the capital, Sarajevo, to bring horses to orphans and the handicapped, and has built his new project into a $1.7-million center where therapists use horses to help mentally and physically disabled children improve their motor skills and confidence.

“What amazes me is that most people would hate Bosnia if their only child would have been killed there,” says Barry Cleland, a New Zealander who manages the center. “But Jean Claude decided to do the opposite.”

Youngsters suffering psychological trauma also benefit. In the five years since he started the program, Carreau has watched as horses have helped children deal with problems they simply could not discuss.

“One does not need to be a doctor to see what this does for the kids,” Carreau says as the normally silent Razija excitedly tells her teachers about being on the horse.

Help for troubled children is scarce 10 years into peacetime in Bosnia, where poverty and unemployment leave people little extra income for charity.

Haris Memisevic, the teacher of Razija’s class at the Mjedenica school in Sarajevo, says his students wait restlessly all week for Wednesday -- the day they get to visit Carreau’s center.

“Our school does not have a playground, so these trips give kids the chance to play outside,” he says. “The picnics turn into a relaxing but useful working day.”

The therapy relaxes the children and prompts them to communicate with the animals, each other and therapists. Afterward, they write essays about the horses, the donkey and the dogs they see in Kakrinje.

Small achievements like balancing in the saddle and making the horse walk in the desired direction offer a feeling of success.

The Bosnian branch of the International Women’s Club is one of the center’s donors. “We thought this [was] a noble idea,” says Valerie Steward, who volunteers once a week. “They build self-esteem, and around horses they do things they normally would not do.”

The children agree to quietly board buses to leave only after being promised they can come back next week.

As he waves goodbye, Carreau says his projects are his way of saying his son didn’t die in vain.

“It’s been hard work and some people think I’m crazy,” Carreau says. “But when I see the kids riding, having such a good time and laughing -- yes, that’s my deed.”