Education Serbia Project #14610

Give refugee children in Serbia hope for education

by Pomoc deci

Project Report | Feb 22, 2023
Big Spring for Stefan

By Ljiljana Vasic | Director

Stefan is Ready for New Step

Dear friend,

We hope you and your loved ones are doing well, waiting for new sprint to cover us with flowers and sunny days.

This spring will be big in Stefan`s life. He is finishing elementary school, celebrating his brother`s 18^th birthday and traveling with his school to Serbian mountains. A smile on his face is telling a lot about the support his family is receiving from you all. Thank you for that.

Over the last years, we have been supporting Stefan with school necessities at the beginning of each school year and with free school meals. His family came as internally displaced people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later Kosovo and Metohija. His mother for years could not regulate her legal status in Serbia. Stefan`s mother in October 2022, finally, with our help, managed to receive a passport, which allows her to go to Bosnia now to get her ID.

Stefan is our scholarship recipient and one of five children of Zemka, who fled Bosnia during the war. She moved to Kosovo and Metohija and experienced the same, was once more internally displaced to central Serbia, in a small village near the city of Smederevska Palanka, not far from Belgrade.

Zemka`s youngest son Stefan is going to turn 15 in just a month. He is attending eight and last year of elementary school, thinking of big things that are in front of him. So far, Stefan is great in school. He is doing well in geography and history, with the same success as with math, chemistry and physics. Stefan is playing football and volleyball, mostly during the summer. He is devoted to his education, but very often is free to support his family. With his brothers and sister, he often accepts work in the fields of his neighbors. Stefan is involved in many agricultural works, preparing wood for the winter, gardening.

A big turning point for Stefan were the health problems his brother was facing. His brother suffered a heart disease, and the struggle for their son and brother was shaking the family. Stefan was always a great support to his brother, who at the end won the greatest battle, after 82 surgeries. Stefan is now looking up to his older brother, who just turned 18 and is at the end of his secondary school journey. Stefan wants to do well in secondary school and pass exams easy, as his brother did.

Big decisions are now in front of Stefan. In his village there are not secondary school, making his situation more difficult. He would need to travel every day to and from school in Smederevska Palanka.

We would like to help him go to school, get the textbooks and school material next school year, his first in city school, where he will meet his new teachers, make some new friends and reach his dream of learning more about history and geography.

So far, with the help of the GlobalGiving community and the generosity of donors, Stefan and his family not only were able to pay for all school necessities, but very soon Stefan is going to travel with his school friends and teachers to excursion, where he will see Serbian mountains for the first time. Thank you for making it possible for Stefan to see some of the places he reads about in his school books.

With you, we can continue to provide opportunities for children and youth like Stefan, so they can continue education and make a life for themselves. Without this support system, children of displaced parents would not be able to get out of the poverty cycle.

Now, we need to allow him to continue his education beyond elementary school. Without your support, his parents would never be able to afford to send him everyday to city, pay for his school material, food and clothe he will need. Let`s make this happen!

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Oct 27, 2022
"Karate Kid" Natalija Makes Us All Proud!

By Ljiljana Vasic | Director

Natalija at European Championship in Belgrade 2021

Dear Friends, Do you remember our “Karate Kid”, Natalija?

Natalija M, was the first child from displaced and refugee families in Serbia who we offered a scholarship from your donations. At the time, she was a 10-year-old girl who had to stop practicing karate because her family could not afford a local bus ticket twice a week for her to go to the practice hall from a refugee camp in which her 4-member family lived in one room. As internally displaced family from Kosovo and Metohija, her family received around 80 Euro of social assistance from the State, whilst medicine for her father who had had a severe heart attack was around 90 Euro per month.

With the first month’s scholarship money, she bought a monthly bus pass so that she could continue practicing her favourite sport.

Five years later, at the age of fifteen, only three weeks after her father had passed away, she won the gold medal at the European Championship for cadets in Romania. Whenever you would ask her what she wanted to study and do in life, the answer was the same: to study sports and physical education, to become a coach or PE teacher.

Last autumn, she passed the entrance exam at the Sports and Physical Education Faculty 200 km away from her home and moved alone to a new town, new level of education, new karate club.

In January this year, she became an official member of the National Competition Team in the senior category. In July, she completed the first year of University with general average grade 8.55. Last month, Dean of her faculty figured out that she managed to study there only because she was receiving a scholarship from your donations. He wrote us a letter on the Faculty Letterhead and signed it as his personal and faculty plea to us and to you. He wrote: “We, the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education in the city of Nis, would like to inform you about the success of our student Natalija M who achieved the excellent grades in the first year of her studies and has enrolled into the second year in the category of students whose studies are financed by the State. We are very happy to have Natalija as the student of our Faculty because, through her personal example, she shows to everyone how excellent results could be achieved despite all the obstacles. We would like to ask your organisation and donors to continue supporting her with scholarship so that we could together support this girl who is achieving extraordinary academic and sports results”.

This letter has touched us deeply, has made us proud of her and even more determined to help Natalija, but also many other children and young people in similar situations reach their dreams, get an opportunity to develop their potential and achieve their goals.

And as Natalija is continuing her studies whilst preparing for the National Competition and World Karate Championship in December, we are hoping that you will continue supporting our work. The work that we do is entirely funded through donations and would not be possible without the philanthropic support of our community. We are counting on your support to help us surpass our goal and invest in our children's future. Please consider donating. If you can't donate, consider sharing Natalija's story with your friends or starting a fundraiser. Don't forget to stay in touch with us, over Facebook or Instagram, we’d love to hear from you.

With love,

Pomoc deci team

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Attachments:

The Faculty of Sports Dean's Letter (PDF)

2 Attachments

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Apr 29, 2022
"We Must Be Good Students Because of You!"

By Ljiljana Vasic | Director

"Thank you for making us happy" - Isidora and Luka

“When we first received new textbooks three years ago, I couldn’t believe it. For the first time, we had all the textbooks and I didn’t have to excuse myself when the teacher asked us to read something from the textbook, and that page in my second-hand textbook was all smeared, so I couldn’t read anything there. When, for the first time, my little brother had a proper backpack for all his school stuff, instead of carrying all things in a plastic bag and being bullied by peers over it, he started crying from happiness. It was then, that we made a promise that we would do our absolute best at school so that you never regret helping us”, says Isidora who will be finishing her elementary school in a month's time. Not only are she and her four years younger brother Luka very good pupils, they are also active in various school sports and knowledge competitions, whilst Luka has started training football in a local club. Isidora would like to become an expert in IT technologies and is preparing very seriously for the entrance exam for the secondary school.

Over the last three years, we have been supporting Isidora and Luka with school necessities at the beginning of each school year and with free school meals. Their family came as internally displaced people from Kosovo and Metohija, for years they could not regulate their legal status in Serbia, and now, finally at least their father managed to secure job. However, with that one and only source of income it is very difficult for him to provide even basic necessities for the whole family and school needs of two pupils.

We would like to help them get the textbooks and school material next school year, too, to help Isidora follow her dreams to learn more about IT, so that one day, she can work in the field she loves, but in order to do that, we need your help!

Please, consider telling your friends about our efforts, if you can, please donate or just mention our project to anyone you can. Not only your donations help these children get educated, your assistance motivates them to overcome all difficulties and achieve more.

Thank you for helping us help them!

With Gratitude,

Yours, sincerely,

Pomoc deci team

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