Describing the situation in the Albanian refugee camps he visited as "pretty grim," Institute of Politics (IOP) fellow and former U.S. Senator and Arkansas governor David Pryor shared his experiences with about 40 students and community members at a lunch yesterday at the IOP.

Pryor said he had been motivated to go to the Balkans by others who had already visited the region.

"I was inspired by a man I read about in the Boston Globe... I said, 'Why not me?'" Pryor said.

But he said he had returned somewhat disappointed by how little he had been able to accomplish.

"I left three weeks later a little frustrated. I felt like I really didn't make much of a difference," he said.

However, Pryor said, there were little things about his trip that made it worth-while. He mentioned one boy who, as Pryor was leaving, ran up and gave him an orange. The first shipment of oranges in three weeks had arrived earlier that day, and each refugee had received just one.

"That was his treasure, and he gave it to me," Pryor said.

Pryor's talk focused on the children in the camps. He said that if he were to go back to the region, he would spend more time working specifically with them.

"In any kind of a war situation, they're the first to get hurt. What the Serbs have forced them to see and feel is as inhuman as you can get," Pryor said.

Saying that he never once saw a playground or play area for the children, Pryor emphasized the need for children's programs in the camps.

"It's very necessary for the children to recollect and depict what they saw before they left Kosovo," Pryor said.

Right now, he said, all the children remember is the trauma of leaving their homes. He held up pictures of the children's artwork to illustrate his point.

"Most of the pictures that the children draw are homes on fire... Here are Serbian tanks shelling their homes...Those are dead people on the side," Pryor described.

However, he said, the pictures showed that the children still held some hope.

"Usually in every picture there's also a NATO plane. They love NATO," Pryor said.