Many houses are burning. Once KFOR has declared a village safe, IRC shelter teams made up of an ex-pat, an interpreter and driver locate area representatives of the Mother Teresa Society or community leaders, and arrange for them to survey the village infrastructure using an IRC shelter form. We show them how to do the survey and fill out the form. We go through the village with them, pointing out structural damage to houses on a scale of one to five, one being undamaged and five totally destroyed. Category three would have some structural damage, perhaps broken windows, but with an intact roof.
People can go through the winter in a category-three house.
The shelter team returns in three to four days with a coordinator and confers with village leaders on needs ranging from stoves and cooking supplies to plumbing materials, doors, windows, plastic sheeting and roof-support beams. The coordinator then arranges for delivery of supplies and building materials from IRC warehouses in Kosovo. The IRC encourages independence and self-help in rebuilding communities. During the war, water systems were often contaminated by garbage and gasoline. As villages were burned and looted by Serb forces, many displaced families fled to communities not yet touched by the conflict, straining water and sanitation facilities in those areas.