Lora’s Story

Lora grew up in Sarajevo during the war and siege of Sarajevo. Read her story of remarkable human resilience and and togetherness.

Lora’s Story

Lora grew up in Sarajevo during the war and siege of Sarajevo. She was born in 1984, the year that the city held the Winter Olympics. The first seven years of Lora’s life were peaceful and happy, growing up with her Mum, Dad, and younger Brother. She grew up in a predominantly Muslim household, however, Lora was raised to explore her own choice and was always encouraged to engage and befriend into other cultures and religions.

But eight years later Sarajevo found itself at the heart of the Bosnian War. Bosnian Serb troops encircled the city, their snipers taking position in the surrounding hills and mountains. Lora, her family, and residents of Bosnia were relentlessly and indiscriminately bombarded with mortar shells and were under constant fire from snipers.

The first Bosnian army recruits Lora said “were our fathers, uncles and brothers who had never held a gun before”.

As time went by supplies began to dwindle. Lora and her family were without food, electricity, heat and water for most of the war. She lived in constant fear of snipers and shrapnel from grenades.

Lora’s mum was determined to keep Lora busy to give her young daughter something to keep her mind off what was going on around her. Lora loved to write and wrote a book of poetry which caught the eye of a famous poet, Velimir Milosevic. Together with Lora’s music teacher they supported her to get her book of poetry published during the war time, even though there was a lack of paper and their safety was often compromised. It even led to a public event to publicise the book. Lora recalls travelling with a convoy of two French United Nations tanks to get to the event and being accompanied by several United Nations soldiers on the day.

Read her full story of remarkable human resilience and togetherness here (please note, this story does make references to war and death which some readers may find disturbing) – Read Lora’s Full Story 

Lora is a big believer in uniting people and hopes to continue to do so for many years.