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April 18, 1999 The letter that announced the creation and readiness of the site.
May 2, 1999 The letter that readdressed the effort to the highest level of our government following reported pleas for help.
Retrospective The letter, replying to a journalist from the UK, that first addressed the politics head on that hampered the effort.
2top | Introduction Kosovo, Ti Do was a free, elegantly simple, searchable registry for relief workers and refugees to use to reunite loved ones. This webpage is a placeholder for the former site of Kosovo, Ti Do. The site was conceived by Judge Michael J. Gregorek and designed by Software Engineer, Rev. John F. Gregorek. Originally implemented to respond to the needs of Kosovo refugees, the site was continued for the use of other refugee situations around the world. After several years, the site was retired. Occasionally, journalists and Ph.D candidates inquire about the effort. This webpage should provide some basic background information for their use and preserve the memory of what was attempted in the name of our father. From time to time, this webpage will be updated to include links to the various articles and books written about the effort.
Following is the letter that announced the creation and readiness of the site. Sunday, April 18, 1999 Katie Couric
NBC Today
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112 Re: Kosovo Crisis
People/Message Registry Dear Mrs. Couric: My brother and I were moved by news reports we saw of Kosovo children separated from their parents in the desperate mad rushes from their homes into refugee camps.
We have created a free, searchable message center for everyone helping the refugees to reunite children with their parents. It is a registry on the World Wide Web accessible to anyone with access to the Internet. Children and parents can be entered (any part of a first name, last name and home town) into a database along with a message. The messages can be where to meet, where a person is, where a person is going, a phone number, a location, etc. The registry is purposefully simplified to make it easy to run on even handheld computers. Please pass the word to everyone on your news programs, like MSNBC or Dateline--the very programs that raised our awareness and urged us to action.
The website is at http://www.gregorek.com/ti_do. We named the registry after our late father and the inscription he put in our mother's wedding band: “The Michael F. Gregorek 'Ti Do' Memorial”. My brother, John F. Gregorek, an engineer, created the website. He can add, for the authorities, password protection for the add and delete functions, but at present the database is wide open for the general public.
While our one grandfather was driving enemy lines back in the infamous raid in World War II, our other grandfather from behind enemy lines was hiding Jews with the Vatican (including a scientist involved with the Manhattan Project). So while many are bravely battling the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, my brother and I want to help all those helping the refugees.
By a copies of this letter we are asking companies and individuals to donate equipment, web space, advertising, and their good names to this humanitarian effort. Sincerely yours,
Michael J. Gregorek, Esq. 2top
Following is the letter that readdressed the effort to the highest level of our government in response to reported pleas for help. Sunday, May 2, 1999 Madeleine Korbel Albright
U.S. Secretary of State Re: Refugee-Message Registry
http://www.gregorek.com/ti_do Dear Secretary Albright: My brother and I need help in what we are doing to reunite the separated Kosovo refugees: children and parents, families and friends. We created a free registry on the Internet where a person can leave or read a message for children, parents, families, and friends. It is collecting registrants/messages right now. It translates for up to 25 languages, works with the smallest handheld computers (PDAs), and has a quick simple interface.
We are receiving communications asking how to donate services, products and money. To be frank, we had hoped one of the refugee organizations would serve as the conduit, but at present there does not seem to be cooperation amongst these groups. On the other hand, other websites have sprung up like ours--quite impressive sites with their own strengths--and we are pushing forward to cooperate.
Our main concern is getting the word to the actual relief workers (be they doctors, military, reporters, etc.) in and around Kosovo that they can use the website. Our second concern is what to do about all the charitable contributions. I am copying this letter to a whole host of people who could either pass the word, or deliver charity, or broker cooperation. You are a person that others look to for leadership because you have their trust and respect. My brother and I respectfully request that you please click the link to our website (website: http://www.gregorek.com/ti_do); see for yourself how simple and useful it is for reuniting refugees; pass it on to our troops, foreign and US refugee camps; and if you want to add or delete something, or take it over, please fee free to contact my brother and I. We are at your service. Sincerely yours,
Michael John Gregorek, Esq.
Michael@Gregorek.com John F. Gregorek, Engineer
John@Gregorek.com http://www.gregorek.com/ti_do Ps. Responding to requests, we included a password to protect against inappropriate additions or deletions from the registry. The password is available to any government, relief worker, charitable organization, even private individuals. We understand that this password will become a poor screen as it becomes common knowledge, but it was the best we could do. The password will follow in an separate email. Thank you for your attention and consideration. 2top
Following is the letter, replying to a journalist from the UK, that first addressed the politics head on that hampered the effort.
[Addressee's Name Omitted]
I am one of the founders of this collaborative effort, The Michael F. Gregorek Ti Do Memorial. We are donating our services, with no compensation.
Judging the present situation of the Kosovars, we surmise that the various other websites are not being used to help those poor children. It is frustrating to think that we have given our time and technology free to those professionals to help the Kosovars, but unfortunately the professionals work for companies that want their names advertised.... Look at how Microsoft and the UN announced their website ignoring the Red Cross's website already up and running. In turn the Red Cross ignored us for several weeks until they set up their own. Shame.
Our site does not gather information for mailing lists and it runs on any handheld organizer equipped with a modem or cell phone connection. I guess small groups of well-meaning, regular people like ourselves are just out of our league in what seems to have become the big business of "relief aid".
The story you would find here is quite different than the one you are focused on. My brother and I are just two individuals, who pulled together the support of many more individuals, to do humanitarian work. Unfortunately, there is profit even in human suffering: using the crisis to raise funds, collect mailing lists, advertise, and spam.
If my brother and I had invented the cotton gin, I could understand the race to the patent office; but our goal is not a mailing list, brand recognition or some other business. We saw an obvious solution to human suffering: if all those reporters could put down their cameras long enough to jot a name down, the problem of lost children could be solved.
As time went by, we saw the big boys seemingly content to reinvent the wheel. The problem is these other sites are time-consuming with all the extraneous information they pool. My brother's site will work on any size communication device, is very fast, and can be used as just a front interface to any of these other websites to feed them data--since they are themselves too complicated to run on handheld devices.
On May 2, 1999, I sent the attached letter in hopes that well-intentioned aid would find a path to the people in need. We had great public support in the US: people willing to donate webspace, equipment, language translation, and time. We lacked a landing zone in the affected region to implement the plan which was developed, prepared and ready for operation on day 4 of the crisis.
We were informed that our site was even being raised by the Jesuits as an action item in a special NATO meeting. However, no major corporation or politician responded to our requests for help. Instead, they either developed their own version of our site or released news of their plans to develop one, but never actually did help those children.
All together it was a very frustrating experience, but we will be there for others in the future. Our site will remain up to help people in any type of situation which forces an undesired separation.
If you have any further interest, please feel free to write to us. I furnished you with a lot of information above for your convenience.
Mike Gregorek 2top | IN THE NEWS Links to: Future Link
Future Link The letter that announced the creation and readiness of the site.
Future Link The letter that readdressed the effort to the highest level of our government following reported pleas for help.
Future Link The letter, replying to a journalist from the UK, that first addressed the politics head on that hampered the effort.
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