By Maja Turniski | Project Leader, program manager
Help Us Bring Suncokret’s New Community Center to Life
We have a new space. Now we need your help to turn it into a home for our community.
We are excited to share the progress we’ve made on Suncokret’s new Community Center—and we want you to know that every step forward has been possible because of you.
When the roof of our previous community center collapsed in June 2025, it was another devastating blow for our community. We had already spent five long years waiting for repairs to our original space following the 2020 earthquakes. Just when we thought we were finally getting closer to having a place of our own again, we lost it.
But we didn’t give up.
At the beginning of this year, we were finally able to rent a new building in the heart of the village. It is a new beginning for Suncokret—and, we hope, a new beginning for the children, young people, families, and older adults who depend on our programs and services.
Now, we are rebuilding this space into a true community center, one step at a time.
And the transformation has already begun.
What was once an empty and neglected building is slowly becoming warm, welcoming, and full of life. Our wonderful international volunteers have removed decals from the windows, cleaned the space, and helped make it feel inviting. Local community members have volunteered their time and energy. Local tradespeople helped install the awning, and the volunteer fire department DVD Gvozd generously lent us their van to make the installation possible.
Our amazing artist, Evgeniia, has also brought color and warmth to the space by beautifully painting the windows.
These may seem like small changes, but together they are transforming an empty building into a place that feels like home.
Now we need your help with the next—and most urgent—step.
Heating.
Before we can fully open the center and begin our programs, we need to make sure it is warm, safe, and comfortable throughout the colder months. We are currently raising funds to purchase air-conditioning/heating units and radiators so that we can begin welcoming people into the center this autumn.
Your donation can help make that possible.
A contribution of any size will bring us closer to opening our doors. Your gift can help provide a warm room for a child to learn, a safe place for young people to gather, a welcoming space for adults to connect, or a place where older community members can feel less isolated.
Because this is about so much more than heating a building.
It is about creating a place where a child can discover a new skill.
Where a young person can find encouragement and belonging.
Where neighbors can come together.
Where older people can feel connected.
Where people can learn, create, share, and heal.
For more than two decades, Suncokret has provided free educational, social, and community programs for children, young people, and older adults in one of Croatia’s most underserved post-war regions. We know from experience that a safe and welcoming community space can change lives.
And after everything our community has been through—from war and displacement to earthquakes and the loss of our previous center—we believe that rebuilding this space is about more than creating a building.
It is about rebuilding hope.
We are so grateful to everyone who has helped us reach this point. Every donation, every volunteer hour, every shared post, and every word of encouragement has helped move this project forward.
But we still have work to do.
Please consider making a donation today to help us purchase the heating equipment we need and bring Suncokret’s new Community Center one step closer to opening its doors.
If you cannot donate, you can still make a difference: please share our story with your friends, family, colleagues, and networks. Help us reach the people who might want to stand alongside our community.
Together, we can turn this empty building into a place filled with learning, laughter, connection, and hope.
One building. One community. One step at a time.
Thank you for helping us rebuild.
By Maja Turniski | Project Leader, program manager
By Maja Turniski | Project Leader, program manager
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