Coronavirus Relief for Children in Serbia

Andjela S. is a 17-year old girl who has never asked for more than she absolutely needed although in many ways she has been more vulnerable than her peers and others affected by the virus.

Being a fourth child in a displaced family where making ends meet is a daily struggle, Andjela is used to sharing and living with less than what other teenagers have. With the start of pandemic and schools closing down, she was one of those young students who did not have a single smart device within the whole family to enable online learning. Her parents who had been earning money by working in the other people's fields, could not find any work because of the lockdowns.  It was your donations and our prompt reaction that enabled Andjela and her siblings to complete successfully the school year. We bought a laptop and provided them with other stuff essential for online schooling.

Already wearing glasses and spending most of her days in front of the screen made her develop mild epileptic seizures in spring which required regular visits to the doctors placed in another town. Living with insufficient funds and at the edge of poverty, her family couldn’t manage to follow doctors’ instructions, regular monthly examinations and medications.

Here again, it was your support that enabled our daily communication with her, following her medical condition and ensuring that Andjela has all the medication needed, all tests done when scheduled and all measures taken to improve her condition.

Andjela is healthy and happy now, preparing for her senior year at high school, but also very determined to help us as a volunteer in the field. “In future, I want to do what you are doing! I want to show children who are suffering poverty, who are affected by any disaster, that there are people who are having their back, who want to and can help these children overcome difficulties. If you let me, I will work with you first, and maybe one day, I will have an organization to support other children”, says Andjela and adds: “I want the people who are donating for me to know that as soon as I start working, I will be always giving for others. This chain of support has to go on and those helped, always need to find a way to help others”.

We at Pomoc deci cannot be more proud of Andjela and her beliefs, but we also know that she herslef still needs a lot of our support!

We know that the times are tough and that the whole world is trying to cope with the consequences of the pandemic, but as Andjela puts it, we need to keep the chain of support going, so, please, donate if you can, or simply spread the word and let your friends and colleagues know that they can also be part of our joint effort to help the children make through the pandemic with as little trauma as possible.

Links:

• Our website
• Our FB page

Dear friend,

How are you? It’s been a while since we last talked. This April, we are celebrating one year since the launch of the project and we wanted to share some very happy news with you.  

Earlier this year, thanks to your generous support and contribution, we were able to acquire laptops for some of the most vulnerable families and their children. These kids have been attending school virtually for the better part of the school year and how difficult it’s been! Since schools in Serbia do not provide laptops to their students, most families do not have a dedicated computer for children to study and attend classes. This means that one, two, three kids has to share a parent’s phone to follow classes. Many children had to compromise and only attend parts of the school day in order to accommodate other siblings. While an important lesson in sharing, education should never be a compromise. Children must be able to go to school uninterrupted. 

That is where your support has come in - over the past 12 months, you have generously supported our work. And we thank you for it. 

One of these families are the school-aged sisters Dijana, Valentina and Danijela. Between them, they had to share one phone to follow their respective classes. Their mom says that it’s been difficult for them to attend classes as it’s three of them using one phone. While their mother has not been able to find work, she is out of the house often, either taking the one phone with her or leaving it at home so the girls can follow their classes, and helping with their father’s treatment. 

The girls are fortunate that they have been able to maintain their good grades in school but it was incredibly difficult. When one of them has classes, the other does homework, while the other does the reading from the textbook. They take turns, but it becomes hard to keep up sometimes. We surprised them in January as a belated New Year’s present and three months later, their mother Jasmina, says that the laptop has helped them out immensely. While they are still sharing the laptop, they are able to follow their lessons and complete assignments. In fact, the 2^nd grader is so excited about going to school, that she wakes up every morning, excited to study.

And you made this happen.

Thank you.

Links:

• Facebook
• Website
• Instagram