Child Protection Serbia Project #21722

Let's Help Syrian Refugee Children in Serbia Now!

by Pomoc deci

Let's Help Syrian Refugee Children in Serbia Now!

Project Report | Mar 26, 2018
A Magic Wand to Bring all the Children Together

By Ljiljana Vasic | Director

FLowers for a Spring Day Celebration

They are four sisters from Iran. With their mother, they were put together in the refugee camp in Bujanovac a month ago. Their father is still in another camp and hopefully, the family will be reunited in the last week of March.

They are new residents of the camp, only a few other refugees speak their dialect, they don’t speak English or any other language. For two weeks, they were only leaving their room for food or other necessities. When our psycho-social support team member Maja asked the children to join the workshops, they gently declined. Maja managed to find a girl who could explain to them what the workshops were all about. Then, the sisters were interested to come, but the mother was still a bit apprehensive, so she showed Maja that she would like to come, too, to make sure it would be safe for her girls. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw two more mothers helping all the children in the group in solving the puzzles, playing with other toys and drawing.

The sisters and their mother have been regular participants in the workshops since that day. The sisters have finally found new friends and could play and be creative with someone other than their own siblings. So, last week, the group decided to create flowers and prepare a Spring Day Celebration. Little did our facilitator Maja know what the sisters were having in mind whilst cutting, wrapping, gluing and putting together bits and pieces of coloured paper. The three-year-old Esther with her flying piggy tails was the conductor of the whole surprise: Maja received a flower from each of the sisters, a drawing of herself from the eldest one and a Magic Wand from Esther. Why a Magic Wand? “This is a Magic Wand to bring all the little girls to your workshop, so that we can all be happy, play and make things, not sit in our rooms!” – explained Esther seriously whilst pointing the Magic Wand at each child in the group.

Yes, this is exactly what we have been doing: bringing little children from the refugee camp together twice a week to spend the time together, play, make friends and not feel isolated in a strange place, with the strange people, in a strange country. They have been through so much in their lives, their parents are exhausted from all the uncertainties and difficulties, there is no safe warm home anywhere on the horizon... They need this safe space, laughter, creative play and friends.

So, please, help us continue doing this, pointing “a Magic Wand” to the refugee children from Middle East in Serbia. Any individual donation up to 50 USD will be matched 50% during the five-day Little by Little Matching Campaign (April 9 - 13th)! And every new recurring donation will be matched 100%!

A Magic Wand to bring all the children together

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Dec 11, 2017
Hana, a Nine-Year-Old Interpreter in Bujanovac

By Ljiljana Vasic | Director

Hana wants to be a designer

Her name means Hope in Kurdish. And she lives up to the meaning of her name. Hana is a nine-year-old girl from Iraq who has been a refugee since the age of six.

“We lived in a big house in a town in Iraq, my grandparents, parents, my sister and I. My Grandpa was killed by a bomb and then we packed and left. My Mum and Dad, my sister and I went to Turkey first. From there, we went to Bulgaria, and now, we are here. My other Grandpa and grandma are still there”, she explains and one wonders, how many children of her age in the world would know even the names of the countries she talks about as easily as if telling you the names of her dolls.

She has been with her family in a refugee camp in Bujanovac, in south Serbia for the last six months. She knows everyone there, and everyone knows her. She speaks fluently Kurdish, English and almost fluently Serbian, so children and adults alike, all call upon her to help both in the communication among the refugees from different countries and between them and Serbian people at the camp.

“It is easy”, she shrugs her shoulders when asked how she manages three languages. “I can talk easily with everyone because both at kindergarten and school I learnt everything in English except Kurdish language. Here, everyone in school speaks Serbian, so I’m learning it, too. I can tell people what other people say to them in other language and then they can understand.”

Hana also regularly comes to the psycho-social support workshops which we organise twice a week for the children at the refugee camp. She loves drawing and hopes that one day she will become a designer. “When I grow up, I’d love to be a designer, but I will have to practise a lot because it is a demanding profession”, she says very seriously looking.

This little girl who is always running around helping everyone and around 100 other children who are growing up in refugee centres in South Serbia have all been through so much in their young lives. They need our support, the opportunity to be just children and play, sing, draw, or just sit in a warm and understanding environment free from heavy thoughts. Thank you for helping us help them deal with all the trauma and keep hope in the hearts.

Please, consider donating to our project before the end of the year, so that we could also compete for a prize which GlobalGiving Foundation will award to the projects that fundraise most within the End-of-the-Year Campaign!

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Sep 11, 2017
When Mohammed met Aisha

By Ljiljana Vasic | Director

Mohammed making his friendship bracelet

Mohammed is a 10-year old boy from Afghanistan. He came with his parents to Serbia five months ago. They have been waiting to be allowed to move on to EU in a refugee camp in Vranje in South Serbia. In one room they have been living and waiting... Mohammed has learnt some English and Serbian, has started going to school a week ago. He has been one of 25 boys from different Middle East countries who have been stuck in Serbia and have no idea where they will be going next, when or how. Although he can communicate in three languages, he is most frequently sitting alone on a bench in the camp’s courtyard, or just playing some game on his own.

Aisha is an 11-year old girl from Syria. She, her younger sister and mother have been moved from one camp to the other several times. Ten days ago, they were sent to the Refugee camp in Vranje, whilst the father is still in another camp some 20 kilometres away. Aisha is still most comfortable playing only with her younger sister.

As we have been organising workshops for children, grouping both girls and boys of similar ages together to play, learn, express themselves and socialise, last week, Aisha joined the group for the first time. And Mohammed decided to come too. That’s where he has seen her for the first time so close.

Bajram was coming and all the children in the group were creating some gifts, friendship bracelets, drawings for their families and friends. Mohammed was trying to make a bracelet, but the little crystal would not stick to the material. He got frustrated and impatient. He wanted to leave the group. Then Aisha took his ribbon and asked him which crystals he would like to stick to it. What shape, what colour? He shyly pointed to one of those on the table. She took it, glued it to the ribbon and gave it to him. He smiled. In the next half an hour they made two perfect little friendship bracelets together. Mohammed decided to give one to his Mom and the other one he offered to Aisha. She happily accepted.

Now, they are playing together, drawing pictures of flowers, birds and landscapes. They go together to school. They laugh all the time.

Through various creative workshops, we are providing psycho-social support for 150 children confined to the refugee camps in Serbia. We help them connect, socialise, overcome the trauma they have been experiencing for several years being on the road, going from one country to another, not knowing if they would ever go back home or where they will end up. Thanks to your support, we have been able to do this, to buy the material for the workshops, to buy the necessities for these children and their families, to help them feel human.

Please, help us continue this work, support our efforts to make life just a tiny bit easier for the refugee children from Middle East in Serbia!

Aisha with her Bayram bracelet gift from Mohammed

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