By Ljiljana Vasic | Director
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 20th, 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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