Mr. Terry Jeans’ son, Simon Jeans was stationed during the war in 1994 as a IFOR UN peace keeping soldier doing his duty in trying and helping people to live in peace side by side together after a bloody war.
“My son would tell me how hard it was out there to do the peace keeping and how difficult was to see all the suffering mostly with the children each day going on. He said that he must think about doing something to help the children who survived the war. Some time later, he phoned me and told me that he and couple of other soldiers had decided to take part in a number of charity events and that they had raised money so they could give it to the poor children.”
After raising money, Mr. Simon Jeans, together with other soldiers decided that they would like to visit an orphanage center Bjelave in Sarajevo and give money to children living there. “He told me how upset he was to see all those children who were so alone and suffering.”
However, this positive and generous story did not see its end. Simon Jeans was attacked by a gang of thugs outside a nightclub when he was in Croatia.
Even though 19 years have passed since his son was murdered, Mr. Terry still want to fulfill his son’s dream: to help the poor children in the Bjelave orphanage and to give them the money raised so many years ago.
“That was the very last thing he ever did in his life. I’m going there because I promised myself that I would go and see for myself what my son was doing”, Mr, Terry adds.
Now, the 72-year-old from Paulsgrove is flying out to the orphanage Bjelave in Sarajevo to meet the staff and the children there to see why his son was so passionate about supporting them.
ST