In the part of Sarajevo that is always full of sunshine lives Vidosava Matuh or Aunt Vida, as twenty children without parental care called her all these years. She raised them as her own two children, and she took special care that they are not missing anything while they are under her roof. Especially not love.
Aunt Vida became a foster parent back in 1987, only month and a half after she gave birth to her first child. She received two boys from the interior of BiH who were attending the nearby Center for Rehabilitation of Hearing and Speech. She remembered with a smile that three years later she had to take her own son to a speech therapist, because he used the sign language more than he spoke.
These boys stayed with her until the end of the war, and Vida also gave birth to a daughter back in 1992. It was not easy to spend four years of the war hiding in the basement, without electricity, water, food, and fearing for lives of four children.
However, they managed to stay alive and after the end of the war, two girls came instead of these boys. Both of them grew up, and one of them now has her own family, while the other, 19-year-old Dragana, still lives there. She is a student of biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Sarajevo.
“I had some difficulties in school when I came to this house, but Aunt Vida was very persistent and patient with me and she helped me a lot. Her love and attention are unique. Aunt Vida is my mother. Her children are my brother and sister, they are the family that I would not have otherwise,” said Dragana.
Everything in Vida’s life is subordinated to children, their needs and obligations. She admitted that she went through the period when she wanted to quit after the death of her husband and numerous farewells with the children. However, a new call from the Center for Social Service with a request to take a three and a half years old little girl, changed her decision.
“That child brought me back to life. She was adopted in September this year, and great people, good and educated, decided to become her parents. We prepared her well for our farewell and she went with a smile on her face. We all still miss her a lot, but I am happy that she found a home and parents. As long as I live, she and all the other children will be always welcomed here,” said Aunt Vida.
Vida is also a foster parent of an eight-year-old girl who came from the Home for Children without Parental Care in Bjelave from October 2017.
“She is a hardworking and smart girl who needs love, attention and support in order to achieve the best results possible. I want to use all of my capacities to become a useful member of this society one day. This is what the entire idea of fostering is about and I would recommend to anyone who has enough love for children and time to give them to do it and become a foster parent,” noted Vida and recommended to ask for all information on how to become a foster parent in the relevant center for social work.
(Source: klix.ba)
