The new settlement in Lukavica near Gračanica came to life these days. After eight typical houses, another four houses are inhabited. Twelve families started a new life, and after two and a half years of wandering from pillar to post, they are in their homes. Their happiness is endless.
After a landslide devastated the entire village of Lukavica in 2014, dozens of families became homeless because of damaged and demolished houses. Two years and four Eids passed in sadness, because they lost everything they had. Thanks to the efforts invested by the UNDP, the Municipality of Gračanica and the local community, twelve new houses were built in Lukavica. Mehmed Marmarac, Vehid and Bećir Brkičević, Husein Subašić, Ferida Mulalić, Lija Hasić, Ibrahim Hasanamidžić, Asim and Ibrahim Devedžić, Senad Marmarac, Almir Ćurić and Fahrudin Subašić with their families started a new life in these houses. No one is happier than them.
“I have been holding a heavy, sooty blacksmith hammer for my entire life, earning a pension with it. I built two houses, and then lost both. My God never let anyone else lose their home. I am 83 years old, I have been retired for 20 years, life was difficult, but living without your home is the most difficult thing. This is the happiest Eid in my life,” said Haji Bećir Brkičević.
Mehmed Marmarac came from Slovenia, where he works, to spend Eid with his family. His wife Emina was taking care of the house reconstruction. The community gave him half of the money for the house, they raised the other half, and today they are happy.
“Lukavica is welcoming the Eid as a village that has arisen from the ashes. This was the most damaged settlement in the Gračanica Municipality. Landslides destroyed houses, barns, roads, water supply networks. Life stopped here. Now it is a different story. We are working hard to bring the water to the settlements Devedžije and Deleići soon, and then we will move on. The most important thing is that we built houses for these people,” said the president of the Local Community Lukavica Almedin Devedžić.
(Source: hayat.ba/photo: hayat.ba)
