By Ljiljana Vasic | Director
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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