By Ljiljana Vasic | Director
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 18th 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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