Postal service

As many families and friends were separated by the war, it was often very difficult to remain in contact and to receive news about each other. Therefore, some initiatives focused on helping families and friends to get or remain in contact. Contact between radio amateurs inside and outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of the rare forms of direct communication between BiH and the outside world. Another way was the distribution of letters. In the first year of the siege, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), delivered close to 50,000 letters that arrived to Sarajevo through convoys.

In 1993, the Italian NGO Beati i costruttori di pace also started a “Postal Service” meant to both send letters in and out of besieged Sarajevo. Over the course of the war, more than 500.000 letters were transmitted through this way. Bosnians sent an envelope to Beati’s headquarters in Padua with the letter inside. Beati then transported the letters to their office in Sarajevo, where they were distributed to their destinations. For many people in Sarajevo, this was a rare opportunity to receive news from family members and friends on the outside, and to receive money from them.