JRS efforts in Albania are headed by Fr. Gianfranco Iacuzzi, SJ, here at a refugee camp in Shkodër.

The number of ethnic Albanians fleeing violence in Kosovo has been growing since March. Over 800,000 have fled or been forced from their homeland, according to recent United Nations estimates. Jesuit Refugee Service offices in Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Romania have been serving this stream of refugees since the beginning of the crisis. "While trying to respond to the current overwhelming urgency we are also trying to prepare for the long term," says JRS International Director Fr. Mark Raper, SJ. "Material and emergency assistance are certainly needed, but we are also concerned for them in their anguish, loss, and sense of being violated."

In Shkodër, a city in northwestern Albania, a movie theater has become a dorm for some of the thousands of Kosovars who fled there. Many others are living in a tobacco factory in unsanitary, crowded conditions with little food. At Shkodër's Arre e Madhe camp, run by JRS country director Fr. Gianfranco Iacuzzi, SJ, the JRS team includes two Jesuits, a doctor, and a nurse.

In the Tropojë region in northern Albania, the JRS and Caritas are the only humanitarian organizations present, supplying medicine, food, and other basic necessities to around 3,000 refugees. The area is highly dangerous due to the local mafia, a strong Kosovo Liberation Army presence, and suspected Serbian infiltration.

In Skopje, Macedonia, JRS Bosnia-Croatia regional director Fr. Stjepan Kusan, SJ, has set up an office that will work with urban refugees outside the camps; refugees in camps are being looked after by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other nongovernmental organizations. The JRS office will help refugees access information, assist those without documents to legalize their status, and enable them to benefit from the local social welfare system that extends food and primary health care. Another of the many tasks this office has undertaken is coordinating with other aid organizations, including the Red Cross and the UNHCR, to reunite families.

Kusan says that almost 60 percent of the refugees in Macedonia are being hosted by local families, many of whom are quite poor. "Their generosity and openness are astounding," he said. "The average number of people in two-room houses is 25." Kusan said that part of JRS's work involves "identifying urban refugees who are crowded in the apartments of host families. A Macedonian TV channel found 105 refugees crammed into one family home." The JRS offers assistance to host families and supplies emergency food packages to refugees to tide them over between the time they register for and then receive local welfare assistance.

"Macedonia, Albania, and Bosnia gain respect as countries and as peoples when they welcome refugees. In these countries, countless families have opened their homes to foreigners," Raper said. "As in Guinea, which hosts around 400,000 Sierra Leone refugees, or Tanzania which hosts around 300,000 refugees from neighboring Burundi, the poorest people and the poorest countries are the most generous." More than 36,000 refugees have been taken in by other European countries, Australia, and the United States since mid May.

"We are all shocked and numbed by this war, in which armies do not engage with one another, but instead unleash their fury on civilians and civil targets," says Raper."Confronted by human suffering on such a large scale and witnessing the futile use of overwhelming force, many ask what they can do to help the victims. The most important thing is that we pray for peace. This prayer is itself a resolve that we shall live our lives for peace, despite provocation."

Author Danielle Vella, from Malta, studied social work at the University of Malta and worked as a reporter before becoming the information officer of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Rome last February.