This is what Cris saw in the Croatian city and wants you to know.

Hey there! I am Cris, a Spanish volunteer living in Croatia and I want you to know something important.

Last week I visited Petrinja, a Croatian city located around 60km far from Zagreb, just in the middle of the country. I had the intention of going there because I met some volunteers in the online version of the mandatory On-Arrival Training that all long-term ESC volunteers should do at the beginning of their volunteering activity. These volunteers I met were located near to me (and Laura), as Petrinja is just 1 hour distance from Samobor by car. The reason why I wanted to visit them besides the fact that I wanted to know them in person, was that a critical situation was taking place in Petrinja, in the city where they, Loïc and Ena, were volunteering.

Before going, they barely told me that a strong earthquake took place some months ago in their city and that they and their neighbors were still struggling with this situation that happened but once I arrived there I realized I could have never imagined how bigger the impact and the issue were.

If I have to be honest, at the very first moment I did not notice a thing. Laura and me arrived on the afternoon of Friday 9th and we just walked a bit near their current house. We visited a river nearby, caught up with the guys, played some board games and cooked something for dinner. Next day would be the big shock in fact.

Then, first thing we did in the morning after having breakfast was to walk around the real Petrinja. The Petrinja that was totally destroyed, in ruins, devastated. 

It was a terrifying tour. They showed us their former office and house, their favorite library on the city, the cinema where everyone used to gather, their medical center. Or what it used to be. Everything was completely destroyed. It seemed the scenery of a horror film. Or a war. As we were seeing how the whole city was, Loïc and Ena were explaining us that these were the consequences of several earthquakes that took place 4 months ago. To my surprise it was not one, but several in a day and in a row that reached level 6 out of 8 in the Richter scale.

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Actually, Loïc told me personally that it was a traumatic event in his life as he could not even sleep or do regular life during several weeks and that he finally had to return back to his hometown in Luxembourg to feel some safety back. He finally came back to Croatia after a couple of months and that’s how we got to have this conversation but he really struggled and here you can see all the details of his experience from his own words.

Other curiosities that Ena and Loïc told us were that all the materials of construction of all the buildings that were destroyed in Petrinja were stolen. Some people went out to the streets to claim for their rights of having a home and their materials back but the mayor and politicians from Petrinja turned a deaf ear to the situation. Ena even told us that a man was prisoned for the fact of protesting. People in Petrinja were devastated, frustrated, helpless. 

Imagine working all your life against difficult conditions (like wars) and building a home and a life and that after that, suddenly, one day, all your life falls apart because of not one but several earthquakes in a row destroy everything. Also, imagine that some donations are being made but nobody sees a thing about them. Or visualize that your representative figures in high positions of society, the ones who are supposed to do something, just don’t care about you. How would you feel? How would you react? This is the situation that inhabitants of Petrinja are facing from several months ago.

To add more to this critical situation, Ena told us that even a famous, quality and expensive cheese, really representative and highly sold in Petrinja, was stolen as well. That’s why there were lots of paintings, in the few walls that still stand in the city among all the ruins, saying in Croatian “Gdje sir?” or “Where is the cheese, mayor?” translated into English.

As I was walking more and more through the city I experienced several emotions at the same time: frustration at not knowing how to help, sadness at seeing people living on the street and picking up rubble from their houses, insecurity from walking among unstable ruins that could continue to fall and injure more people (including me), anger at the fact that the politicians of the city still do nothing about it and that there is a devastating situation goes on for so long (4 months and going). 

But I also felt pride for the people of Petrinja because even though life has hit them so hard over and over again, they keep fighting to stay on their feet. Love also appeared when seeing that there is many people helping to make Petrinja inhabitants happy, people like Loïc and Ena or udruga IKS, that are creating some puppets just to put a smile in the face of these people. And finally, interest in helping with what this people need and is in my power, always doing my best.

Later, after I processed this torrent of emotions, of course, a reflection came:

We are all Petrinja. We are people working on a daily basis to be happy. People who is building a life and a future. People with friends, family, neighbors. At once, life will hit us hard (could be in many possible ways that will escape to our control) and we will need help. Because we all need each other to live. This is why this issue matter us all. Because this situation can happen to every single person in the planet. You included.

This is why action came in the last place, after this reflection. The action of helping somehow. This is why I am first writing this article, to disseminate what is going on in Petrinja and make this issue as much visible as possible. Secondly, the action of help is also reflected on me in the fact that I have just started talking to my organization, Pozitiva Samobor, and other Croatian organizations to do a brainstorming of workshops and ways in which we can help these people. Of course, always counting on their opinion first, as they are the ones who are living the situation in the first place.

What about you? Are you planning to stay sit with your arms crossed or are you also getting involved at solving this issue?