Mark and Caroline Cook, founders of the EDP's partner charity, Hope and Homes for Children, have finally taken the time to record 20 years sprinkled with moments of terror and tears of joy.
As Caroline Cook pulled on her steel helmet and flak jacket before heading for a German transport aircraft at Sarajevo Airport, she was handed a large pack containing a parachute.
Not surprisingly, she was not sure what to do with the bulky bag until the Luftwaffe loadmaster showed her how to strap it on and added: 'I jump – you jump.'
• How the plight of Rwanda's children moved TV presenter Nick Hewer
• Help free Rwandan children from loveless institutions by supporting our appeal
• EDP readers' donations giving new lives to thousands of children in Rwanda
She didn't have to jump, despite the gunfire which normally accompanied a take-off from the besieged Bosnian capital during those dark days of the mid-1990s.
But the incident demonstrates the steep learning curve which she and Mark Cook faced when they decided to set up Hope and Homes for Children.
Twenty years on, the couple can look back on an incredible success story – £80m raised, 40,000 children helped directly in 15 countries and at least one million children given further support.
But when it began, it was very much a wing and a prayer, operating from a donated office which didn't even have a toilet, over an old barn near their Wiltshire village home.
'When we set out on this we never knew where the money or support was coming from, or what was going to happen next,' Mrs Cook now says. 'But I can't tell you how much joy there has been in seeing so many ruined young lives given hope at last.'
The idea came after Mr Cook had left the army after 30 years, including time spent as a Gurkha Colonel and then as the British UN Commander in Croatia, where he raised £100,000 to rebuild an orphanage destroyed during the civil war when Yugoslavia broke up.
He had been spurred on by the example described in former ITN Correspondent Michael Nicholson's book, Natasha's Story, about his rescue of one of the children he had witnessed suffering in the hellhole of Sarajevo's main orphanage.
Having visited the television journalist and seen Natasha living safely at his family home, the couple were convinced they should fly into Sarajevo to see how they could help the remaining children.
Mr Cook had already been to the shell-blasted city, but it was quite a shock for his wife: 'I was quite naive and didn't know what to expect. I thought we were going to a Holiday Inn that would probably have a pool, so I popped my swimming things into my bag.
'When we landed I looked out and saw people rushing around in flak jackets and helmets and we were given helmets to go to the temporary terminal they had built, where we got into an armoured personnel carrier.
'Through the windows I was amazed and horrified, not frightened, but it made you think how close the war was and what damage it had done to so many people and their homes.
'At the Holiday Inn we went to the back entrance as the front had gone. There were armed soldiers who checked us as we went into the half a foyer that was left. There certainly wasn't a swimming pool and just one floor for accommodation because most of the others had been blown out by the surrounding Serbs.'
There was even danger on that first journey from the hotel to see the children in the orphanage, which was on top of one of the city's hills and under fire from thousands of Bosnian Serb snipers and mortar positions.
Their taxi took them along the Sniper Alley, a long main road which was overlooked by numerous apartment blocks infested with countless Bosnian Serb snipers, who fired every day and night at anything that moved.
Mr Cook recalled: 'We booked a taxi and took off our flak jackets and pushed them to the side of the car which was exposed to the Serbs, after which the driver just put his foot down hard and drove like a maniac.
'Then we got to the orphanage where we were surrounded by these Dickensian urchins in this very badly damaged building.'
Mrs Cook was equally disturbed by the sight: 'The place was in a terrible state. The baby room on the ground floor was a huge shock. We were hit by the heat of this fire, which was a gas pipe really that had been lit and there were flames pouring out.
'These little things in their cots were longing to be picked up and cuddled and taken out. Our hearts went out to these children, cooped up with nowhere to go and nothing to do. We just wanted to play with them and give them lots of love.'
That awful sight was the spark, so on their return they decided to form the charity to help children caught up in war and disaster who needed hope and a home, hence the name, Hope and Homes for Children.
'We thought then that we would build or repair orphanages in these countries, not realising that that was the worst possible thing we could do,' Mr Cook now admits.
He had become something of a local hero in East Anglia, having been born near Beccles and lived nearby. Consequently he came to the attention of the EDP, which handed over a £20,000 cheque made up of readers' donations at the charity's London launch in 1994.
At first, the couple went down the popular road of patching up and restocking existing orphanages to make life better for their young occupants.
'We thought that if you rebuilt an orphanage and repainted it and made it nice and bright it would change the lives of the children there,' he said.
'Not long afterwards, we discovered that it made no difference whatever colour cot you painted. If they didn't get the love and care of parents then it didn't help them to get a new life.'
Another wake-up call came from seeing the street children of Eastern Europe. Many had nothing expect dogs as pets. They loved the dogs and the dogs loved them. But there was no real love in the institutions.
So the whole strategy changed to freeing children from institutions and returning them to families, as well as preventing them from being abandoned in the first place.
'The biggest mistake we made was presuming we knew what they wanted,' said Mr Cook. 'It was only through listening to them that we really became aware that we were on the wrong course.'
So a complete U-turn occurred. Instead of building and repairing orphanages, they began to close them down, reuniting children with families and setting up adoption schemes in their own countries. They also created prevention plans to stop children being dumped, by working with vulnerable families suffering with poverty, alcohol or other pressures.
That work, now labelled as deinstitutionalisation, has become a model for many countries across Europe and further afield. In Romania, there were 120,000 children in institutions and now it's down to 7,000. In Rwanda, all 33 institutions are being closed in conjunction with the government.
Efforts are also now concentrated on eight key countries, which has meant a handover of projects in places like Sierra Leone, which was the scene of enormous efforts during a 10-year war which brought the West African state to its knees, even before the Ebola virus arrived more recently.
It remains home to Tenneh Cole, the young girl who was flown by the charity and the EDP to the UK for the removal of a bullet from her brain, an operation performed at the old Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
Such stories helped bring in vital donations to keep things moving, particularly from East Anglia, which has the biggest support group in the country.
'There are some very special people there,' says Mrs Cook. 'There have been coffee mornings, open gardens and fund-raising dinners. Many people have told us they will leave the charity legacies. They have been incredibly kind and active.'
The couple have taken supporters out to projects to see the results of their work and the kindness that has made it possible.
'We are the bridge between the supporter and donor to the children. We want them to understand the impact of what has happened,' said Mr Cook.
'The money has never sloshed around in a washing machine here or in a bank. It goes straight out to where it can do the most to help.'
Now they are stepping further back, after first stepping back 10 years ago and handing over to people who have steadied the ship and taken the work to the next stage.
The couple were appointed by the trustees as founder presidents to be ambassadors, advocates and advisers to the charity. And they will remain involved in something that has been their life for two decades. They see it as looking after their huge international family as well as their two sons, Edward, 42, and William 41, and their four grandchildren.
'Every working day we have been very lucky to have had this,' said Mr Cook. 'We have met so many amazing people. We wouldn't have changed a thing. It's been a privilege.'
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here