Give refugee children in Serbia hope for education

Dear Friends,

Thank you for supporting our efforts to help the children of refugees and displaced people in Serbia get better education and achieve more! This year has been so rewarding for all of us, we managed to support nearly 300 children through stipends, free snacks, free textbooks, monthly transportation costs covered and additional tutoring in Serbian, Mathematics and foreign languages. It has all been made possible because you have decided to help.

We have been seeing a huge change in attitude, self-confidence, ambition and willingness to become part of the wider community in all the supported children as a result of our efforts.

Natalija M, a 11-year old receiving the stipend, was born in the Collective centre for Refugees in Raca. All her life she had lived there with three siblings, mother and sick father. Six months ago the family was provided with a social housing apartment and they moved out of the Collective centre. Since then, Natalija has, for the first time in her life, her own room, but the regular expences for the family with two school age children and no one having a regular job have become even higher. However, in agreement with the family, she has decided that she will use part of the stipend to start training karate again after two years of not being able to pay for the training, required kimono and competitions. Within three months of that decision, she has acquired a new colour belt, has won three medals in regional competitions and her grades at school have improved.

Natalija called us after every competition to tell us about her achievements and just two days ago she told us: “I won the second prize at one competition and the third prize in another over the weekend! I am so happy, I want to train karate and compete so much, and now I can! The training has been so good in other ways too. I have made new friends, and have travelled to other towns when my team is competing. I am so thankful to my Sponsor and Pomoc deci for offering me the opportunity to do all this.”

Now, we have the opportunity TOMORROW, on December the 2nd to raise much more funds to help more children achieve what they thought would be impossible for them!

Microsoft YouthSpark has selected our project to support through a 100% match on all donations made while funds last! Your donation of $10 becomes $20, or $50 becomes $100.

If you are in UK, in addition to 100% match from Microsoft YouthSpark, the UK Government will add 25% so your donation of £10 becomes £22.5!

Since you have supported our project in the past, you know that Pomoc deci programme seeks to help as many of refugee and displaced children as possible reach their full potential. Please, help us reach more of them and change more lives!

We thank you for your past contributions to our efforts to support education of these children. We hope that you will take this opportunity and help us take advantage of this extraordinary matching opportunity!

Links:

• Organisation website
• Organisation FaceBook page

Dear Friend,
Last school year, with YOUR support, we managed to give 10 scholarships for the children who were refugees their whole lives. We also bought books for 55 children, winter clothes for 20 children and helped a total of 76 of them go on an annual school excursion.
Over the last three months we have organised additional tutoring for 14 children and they have all passed their exams and are continuing their education this year. We gave away three awards for the best grades at the end of the year and children have already asked if we will be awarding them this year, too.
Over the last three months, you have helped us raise new 4,500 Dollars and we have prepared the contracts for six children who will be receiving the scholarship this school year. We have bought textbooks for 30 children for the starting school year and have secured free snacks for 10 children in the first semester of this school year.
“I had to call you and tell you that the parents of Vujadin J. and we here at school have all cried when the money arrived for his textbooks”, said the school pedagogue at the Elementary school “Djura Jaksic” in Kragujevac on the phone last week. “This has been so touching moment, and we all thank you so much for the help for this deserving child”, she said.
Vujadin is in the seventh grade now and with his parents, refugees from Croatia, he has moved out of the collective centre into a rented two-room apartment in the last 12 months. HIs brother is in the last year of the secondary school and his mother is sick. They are extremely poor and now, with all the monthly bills that they have to pay in order to keep the roof over their heads, they could not afford to buy any books for their son.
“I have had all excelent grades so far, and I promise, I’ll do everything to continue to be an excellent pupil now that you have given me these shiny new books”, said Vujadin.
Please, help us continue changing the lives of these children! From September 3rd until September 10th, GlobalGiving will be offering a one-time 100% match on all new recurring donations! If you decide to donate on regular monthly basis 12 dollars (on our project page you need to click recurring donation button below the Donate button), we will be getting additional 12 dollars as long as your repeated donation lasts. This will mean that for each child that your donation will provide a free snack at school, an additional child will be getting a free meal.
We will continue informing you regularly where each dollar of your donation goes, who we have helped and what change together we have managed to bring about.
We hope you will join us and help OUR children get the food, clothing, and education they need to be happy and healthy and to feel equal to other children!
Thank you very much for the interest and support for our project. Please feel free to contact us with any questions, comments or ideas at pomocdeci@eunet.rs