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I just wanted to tell you a bit about what I have been doing for the last year and a half. It has gone so quickly, I can't believe it. I work in Sarajevo, but we, Save the Children UK, have offices in two other cities in this divided country of Serbs (Orthodox Christians), Bosniaks (Moslems who are mostly not practicing their religion) and Croats (Catholics).

The results of the war are still everywhere. Although there has been a lot of reconstruction of the country, there are still areas that are devastated by the war and the country is full of mines. Last week I heard an explosion not far from my office, and thought "please don't let it be children in a mine field". Sadly, the next day, I found that three children had been killed by a mine. Somewhere between one and three million mines still litter the country with their legacy of evil.

I have 27 staff and I am the only ex patriot. My staff are wonderful, highly skilled and y highly educated as well. They are from all three groups and work well together - an example for the country. We have a total of 18 different projects going - all linked by work on children's rights and a commitment to building the capacity of the national NGO sector and government service providers with whom we work in every aspect of our program. We are hoping to become unnecessary - that our work to develop the capacity of national organizations will mean that we are no longer needed. The program will run for at least a few more years though, and because of the political complexities of this country, Save the Children UK (SCF) believes that an ex patriot is needed.

Unfortunately, I agree with them. It is still a volatile country and the peace here is tentative. There are still 22,000 NATO led peacekeepers in the country. Tanks, helicopters and camouflage uniforms are an everyday sight for us and sadly, for all the children of this country.

We work with children who lost their parents during the war, in community programs to try to strengthen the involvement of the communities in the lives of children. We have a juvenile justice program, a fostering program and work in an orphanage in a site where single moms and their children are living collectively as a result of being displaced by the war. We have programs for disabled children who are particularly vulnerable in this country, and for Roma (Gypsy) children, who are living in extreme poverty. In addition to this work, we have helped children make videos about their lives and dreams and held a poster competition which allowed children to tell the country what they thought about their world.

The war in Kosovo had a huge effect on all of us, especially my staff. Kosovo and Serbia were part of this country only ten years ago, and more than half my staff had relatives in both Kosovo and Serbia. We heard the NATO bombers heading into Serbia every night for almost four months, towards the families and friends of our staff, and towards the other Save the Children staff who bravely kept working throughout the war.

There were more than 75,000 refugees from the war in Bosnia, and we worked hard to provide them with food, clothing and hygiene items and are still doing this work with 4000 children. Many refugees have not returned to Kosovo or Serbia and are desperately in need of help. About 400 of these children live in destroyed houses that are surrounded by mines. We are running a program to teach them about the dangers of the mines which are all over their adopted community.

When the war happened last year the security situation deteriorated and almost all international agencies left the Serb Republic, where we have an office. Our office remained open, though we had to hide any evidence that we were an organization from a NATO country - the UK in particular. The UK and US embassies were destroyed in Banja Luka, where our office is, and all international agencies evacuated their international staff. Our staff was incredible, working to help children in extremely difficult circumstances, and I was really proud of them. I couldn't travel to this part of the country for many weeks, as the security situation for international people in particular was difficult. We stayed in contact by phone and email daily, evaluating the situation and the decision to work or not was made on a daily basis.

Things are much calmer now, but we are worried about instability in the region, in particular in Montenegro, Kosovo and other parts of Serbia. We are developing emergency plans in order to be prepared if the worst happens. We are all hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. If there is war in Montenegro, Bosnia will have more refugees than any other country in the region because of the border we share with the republic.

I spend most of my days working on policy and program development, writing reports, trying to better understand this country and how we should be working. It has gone well. The program is larger and more secure than when I arrived, and I have managed to help my wonderful staff begin to realize their potential. It is a humbling experience.

Although I worked in Central America during their civil wars, nothing could prepare me for the devastation that occurred here. About 250,000 people died in the war here, and the wounds and hatred run deep. It will be a long time until there is a true peace here, rather than one maintained by the thousands of peacekeepers and others who work here from the rest of the world. Yet when I see my staff, and the national NGOs we work with and some of the government partners we have, I wonder how a war could ever have happened and have real hope for the future of this country.

Mostly my life is fairly routine B at least for Bosnia. I work everyday, most days 12 hours a day, though Saturdays are usually a little slower for me. I live in a lovely apartment overlooking the city and the mountains beyond, and my dog Gromit has accompanied me on the posting. He has adjusted well, though it took some time, and comes to work with me everyday. My staff feed him far too much and he is fat, but otherwise, doing really well. Email with my family and friends in Canada keeps me sane and grounded.

I love the work and the people more than I could tell you, but I am tired. I have been back to Canada to see my family, but probably need about a month on a deserted island right about now. No time for this though. Not that I can't leave my staff in charge B I could easily. It is just that there is so much to do.

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