Fri, Aug 17, 2018 page5

• FEATURE: Bosnians weave wigs for children battling cancer

  • AFP, SARAJEVO
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  Ajla Nizic did not know what cancer was when she was diagnosed with it at age four.

  “But I knew that I lost my hair,” said the Bosnian leukemia survivor who is now 19 years old.

  Now a medical student, Nizic is leading a campaign to give other sick children a luxury her parents could not afford: wigs.

  

  A volunteer weaves a wig in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 7 as part of the My Hair, Your Hair campaign to create wigs for children who are undergoing chemotherapy or have lost their hair due to other health complications.

  Photo: AFP

  Bosnia, one of Europe’s poorest countries, has no domestic wig-making industry.

  The nearest available source has been neighboring Croatia, where wigs cost up to 2,000 euros (US$2,275) — more than four times the average monthly salary in Bosnia.

  “As trivial as it might seem at first while a person is battling such an aggressive disease, hair loss is often a huge psychological burden, particularly for girls who do not dare to go out without hair,” Nizic said.

  Her campaign — My Hair, Your Hair — is encouraging Bosnians to donate their locks to a new wig-making workshop that opened in Sarajevo in October last year.

  There, volunteers are weaving wigs specifically for children who are undergoing chemotherapy or have lost their hair because of other health complications.

  Hundreds of people — mainly women, as the hair must be at least 30cm long — have flocked to hair-cutting events held at schools and shopping malls around the country. Others have cut their own hair and mailed it to the campaign.

  On a recent afternoon at an elementary school in Sarajevo, several young pupils sat calmly as their hair was combed into sections and then snipped off.

  “I don’t want to be the only one smiling,” said 13-year-old Suana Sehic, now sporting a bouncy bob. “I would like a smile to return to the face of all children.”

  Solidarity often saves lives in Bosnia, where many families struggle to cover the costs of basic medical care.

  Local media publish almost daily appeals to help raise money for Bosnians seeking medical care abroad — often with little or no reimbursement by Bosnia’s social security system.

  The Sarajevo workshop uses donated real hair to avoid the expense of the materials needed to make synthetic wigs.

  It takes at least two weeks — and the hair of six people — to weave one wig, and a dozen volunteers have woven about 20 wigs since the workshop opened, said Nermina Cuzovic, 39, who set up the project.

  In addition to making the wigs, the small studio is also training a dozen people to carry on the exacting work, which involves using a small metal needle to sew strands of hair into a mesh cap.

  The pieces of donated hair must be as close in color as possible, said Fuad Halilovic, 22, who manages the workshop.

  “We try to make it so the wig resembles the hairstyle the child had before losing their hair,” he said. “We measure their heads and look at photographs of how their hair looked before.”

  The wig project is part of a wider effort by a Bosnian association called A Heart for Children with Cancer.

  In 2016, the group opened Bosnia’s first “parents’ house” — a small apartment complex near Sarajevo’s pediatric hospital where families who live far from the capital can stay while their children are being treated.

  “Before, some parents slept in their car near the hospital, because it is expensive to pay for accommodation in Sarajevo, particularly because the process of recovery is very long and exhausting,” association president Fikret Kubat said.

  Atifa Buldic-Besic, 30, spent seven months in the home in 2016 when her daughter was being treated for leukemia. Now, her child is on the road to recovery and Buldic-Besic works in the parents’ house as a volunteer.

  “That was our second home, the only place where our daughter smiled, the place where she started running, the only place where she played with other children,” Buldic-Besic said.
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