Coronavirus Relief for Children in Serbia

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.

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