Projects: Innocents: Easy Work

Easy Work

We were sitting in a cafe drinking tea when the Serbians came. They took us to a camp and asked my father if he wanted to wear their uniform. He said, “No, I want to live with my family.” So they burned him with cigarettes
and made us watch. Then they cut his throat.

The soldiers said to me, “Make the Serbian sign,” but I ran away. They
shot at me, but my name means “little snake,” and they couldn’t find me in the dark.

I was in a Red Cross center when I heard the name of my mother and sister on the radio. They came on a bus, and I ran to meet them. My mother was crying, and she said, “Thank God that we are alive.”
Last winter there was no food, and I was very hungry. I started begging.
At first it was hard work, but now it’s easy. I start when school gets out at noon and quit at 10 p.m. because of the curfew. Almost every day I make enough money to buy a bread and marmalade.


Delic “Smook” Sanel, 11
Zenica, Bosnia

Delic Sanel has juvenile onset diabetes.