For Thomas Doyle and his colleagues from the local Red Cross, organising a picnic for the elderly in mine-infested territory is just one more Bosnian challenge. His mission, on a sunny summer morning, is to help ferry 35 elderly Bosnians out of grim post-war flats to a tranquil clearing on the bank of the river Drina.

This was frontline territory during the war. Not one bather splashing about in the clear river water ventures across to the opposite bank. "That side was mined," says Thomas Doyle. "It's not easy to find a safe location for a picnic."

A native of Co Kerry, Doyle is an Irish Red Cross delegate seconded 18 months ago to the mission of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"I think that the International Federation will be working here for at least another three years, because of the volatile nature of the economic, political and social situation,"` he says. Preparation for the afternoon picnic began early in the morning when Red Cross Mobile Technical Teams - special units set up by the International Federation to help repair war-damaged houses - arrived at the picnic site. They cleared the ground, spread out a blanket and set to work on a tree stump preparing lamb for the pensioners, many of whom would be tasting meat for the first time in years.

In the nearby town of Gorazde, Red Cross vehicles were pressed into service to collect picnickers from their homes. Nearly every building bears the scars of the war - walls pockmarked by bullets; roofs blown off by exploding shells. Many were destroyed beyond the point of repair and that has left pensioners such as Kuclic Dzencica calling the local school home.

The gymnasium and adjoining classrooms have been turned into a Red Cross collective centre - a hospice for the most vulnerable displaced by fighting during the war. Twenty-five wooden beds ring the gymnasium wall. Beside each lie small, ragged bundles containing possessions the residents salvaged before fleeing from their homes.

By the bank of the river Drina, Mrs Kuclic is making new friends. She shares her section of the blanket with a small cluster of pensioners all meeting for the first time. Stretched out before them are rows of plates filled with lamb, vegetables, bread and cheese. Thomas Doyle and his colleague Erica Basler make sure glasses are kept full and everyone is happy.

Cekav Gulejman offers the best compliment of the day: "It 's just like the old times. I never thought I would survive the war to enjoy a picnic like this." Gulejman's wife is dead; his son is an unemployed ex-soldier living in Sarajevo. Neither father nor son can often afford the eight deutschmark bus fare (£2.50) to meet for a visit. Gulejman lives alone, with little family contact.

For the secretary of the Gorazde Red Cross, Ibrahim Saucevic, the picnic is a major success: "These people are meeting for the first time here, they are just starting to get to know one another and to make friendships. They are all lonely people and they all suffered greatly during the war. This is the first time many of them have ventured into the countryside in five or six years. For them, this is freedom." For Mr Gulejman it is a day to make new friends, to gossip a little and to enjoy folk songs squeezed out of an ancient but feisty accordian. Between songs, however, the importance of the day becomes clear.

"In some small way the Red Cross has become my family," he says.

Susan Viets is an information delegate with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Sarajevo