Jovan is looking for the Greek family who accepted him as a refugee 1995: He only has this photo

Photo: Private Archive

It was the winter of 1995 when young refugees from Serbia came to the Greek city of Kavala, at a time when the war in the former Yugoslavia was nearing the end.

Among those children was a boy, Jovan Skrbic, from Gradiska, born in 1989. The boy was received with lots of love and with open arms by a Greek family - which Jovan, who is now 30 years old, has been trying to find for a long time.

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To get back in touch with the family who had been there for him during the difficult moments of his childhood, the young man turned to the Live from Greece Facebook page, and they immediately started to look for the generous Greeks.

According to the group's administrators, they informed the media in Greece and local associations dealing with the protection of vulnerable sections of society. Based on the photos he sent, it was established that Jovan had spent most of his time in an institution for children without parental care, that was established in 1947.

Even today, Jovan remembers such small details as the layout of the buildings in the complex that he drew, as well as the apartment of the family with whom he would spend several days at a time.

"A very emotional sentence that made me want to persevere in finding them was this: what made a big impression was the fireplace in the apartment and the phone hung on the wall," the admin of the Live from Greece group told us.

The young man maintained contact with this family for a while, and then, due to poor communication means, it was lost. He remembers the names of the people in the family and a lady that he refers to as Gina, who is in one of the photos with Jovan.

That woman lived in an apartment above the family, which Jovan only learned when he was scared and crying the first night there, and she comforted him. She later taught him to tie his shoe laces.

Local media from Kavala, including the Kavala Web News, were happy to pay close attention to the case, publishing a photo of Jovan with the Greek family.

Several people came forward and recognized the woman who's name was actually not Gina.

"We are currently working on finding this woman. A reporter from Kavala told me something touching, which is that he also hosted a girl, Ljiljana, at the time, and her friend, a very intelligent and talented boy, Nebojsa, who are both older than Jovan. They too lost contact with those children. It should be noted that Kavala and Gradiška have been twinned cities since 1994 and because of this friendship many children had been accommodated with the families of this favorite city of our tourists," said our interlocutor.

Video: Tears, prayers and candles for Serb victims

(Telegraf.rs)