Phoenix needs help to rise

* Edinburgh University and Edinburgh District Council have joined in a town and gown initiative to help combat the trauma suffered by children over the past four years, Olga Wojtas writes.

Nigel Osborne, professor of music at Edinburgh, is co-ordinating a series of therapy projects, offering children intensive experiences in a number of creative arts, especially music, designed to stimulate their imagination and enhance their educational development.

Professor Osborne and six Edinburgh music students were recently involved in setting up a special music technology studio in Sarajevo University, which uses sound beams to help children with limited movement to make music.

Osman-Faruk Sijaric, pro-rector of Sarajevo, who visited Edinburgh with Professor Mulabegovic, praised Professor Osborne as a western academic who actually delivered help. "Several times a week, foreign people come and say 'What do you need? We are so sorry about you'. I give so many lists, but not even 1 per cent do anything," Professor Sijaric said.

Milica Pesic is a journalist with the Alternative Information Network, an agency formed by journalists from the former Yugoslavia.