Let's Help Syrian Refugee Children in Serbia Now!

Dear friend,

We hope you and yours are healthy and happy.

Refugee crises and wars in the east have made many people homeless. People moved across countries from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, to Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia. Most of them traveled with many children to reach safe countries. Some of them succeeded, while others are still in asylum centers, nicer words for refugee camps, across Serbia. Help them have a decent childhood.

In center in Bujanovac there is a creative workshop twice a week. Children love it because at that time they can paint, play games, learn languages, play sport, sewing, watch cartoons… These occupational activities help them to suppress their memories of war and fleeing home countries in fire.

But time is passing by and their wish to have a home and unite with family members is bigger and bigger. Some of them left Serbia and went to Bosnia and Herzegovina but were not welcomed there, so they returned to Serbia. In Bujanovac center, a town in the south of Serbia, a mother and a daughter are waiting for their next move for seven years.

Tami is a youngest girl attending children`s workshops at Bujanovac center. Workshop was created for children, but gradually their parents began to take part, being unoccupied during afternoons. Tami was happy being with her mom at workshops, while her mother was hoping to leave soon, every day waiting for confirmation that they could go. But as time passes, the mother becomes very depressed, stops coming to the workshops and is less healthy.

Tami realized that her mother was not happy and started to ask the teacher to let her take some of the textile so that the two ladies could do something together in their room. Tami likes workshops, where she is learning English and Serbian language and can`t wait for the time she is spending there, socializing and being creative.

This year Tami should start her first year of education, in a foreign country with a mother that is more and more depressed. Sometimes she is looking at her daughter and suffering for not being able to provide her child with basic things. Now, that Tami is ready for school, it looks even harder. She will need books and clothes, foot wear and many school necessities. Her mother said once, something that most of the people cannot understand: “Once, Tami received a beautiful dress. It was July and I will never forget that summer day and her happiness wearing a brand-new dress.” The reality is that most of the clothes that end up in asylum centers are clothes already used.

Tami is starting her life in circumstances that are difficult. We can help her and her mother with little, because for them even little is sometimes a reason to rejoice.

And Tami is not alone. Help give all those children a chance, an education, a future…

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It has been seven years since a huge wave of refugees from Middle East, bringing over a million people to Serbia in their efforts to reach the European Union countries. Currently more than 5,000 Middle East migrants are still in Serbia. More than 1,500 children are growing up in several refugee camps, dreaming of a day when their families would be reunited and settled for good in one place.

More than 500 of migrant children have been born in Serbia during this seven-year long waiting time for the migrant families to somehow reach a country where they could find relatives, get a job and a place to raise their children.

With your help, we have been helping the migrant children in any way we can. We have been organising regular psycho-social support, weekly workshops for children and their mothers mainly, have been providing the basic necessities for the new-born ones and all of this has been greatly appreciated. Sameera from Syria has started volunteering with our Maja in the Vranje Refugee camp: “I had to do something and not just sit, wait and watch my children grow in one room with us grown-ups. And I felt so grateful for Maja’s efforts to see how we are, help if we need something and for broad smile whenever any of our children approach her. At one point, I just had to reach out and ask if I could help her in any way and “repay” for this human, warm, efficient and calm help that we have been constantly having. She told me that she would need to ask her organisation if this would be OK. I feared that the organisation would reject my offer for any reason. She came back a week later with the broadest smile you can imagine and told me that Pomoc deci, her organisation not only would allow me to help, but was grateful for my offer. In two years, this was the first time I really felt as a useful human being who can be productive for the first time”.

She immediately adds: “Now, we organise the activities together, I help with translations for the newcomers, we agree on what we will be doing next time she comes and then I make sure that all the children and as many mothers as possible, join us, so that we can all forget about our situation for a short while and be just happy children and parents playing and creating new things together”.

Please, help us continue supporting these families and children, help us make them feel good even if it is only for a few hours a week. It is a glimpse of hope for them that someday, they will be able to return to normal life and enjoy their family time together in a way we at home do. That they will be able to put all this trauma behind them and continue their lives.

On July the 20^th, it is a July Bonus Day designed to celebrate high-donation donors and help GlobalGiving partners move smaller-dollar donors up to new giving heights. Accordingly, only donations of $100 USD and up will count on Bonus Day and, the higher the donation, the higher the match! And higher the amount we raise, the more smiles on the faces of Middle East migrant children in Serbia we will jointly bring!

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