Help People with Intellectual Disabilities -Serbia

Just like all of you, we at KEC are eager to leave our COVID induced small environments and start getting back into the larger world. Our beneficiaries and their families are impatient to once again experience the freedom of moving around and the joy and security of the KEC center. But we remain fully aware that while the crisis is hopefully ebbing we must remain vigilant in our measures.

While severe COVID restrictions were in place KEC developed an online program to work with more than 80 of our beneficiaries individually and in groups. These psycho-social activities kept us in touch with our users and allowed us to offer additional support where needed. Despite these efforts our beneficiaries really just wanted to see each other and to experience the KEC center “in real life”. Their patience has paid off.

With the lifting of restrictions we have started holding regular activities in the center except in smaller groups and for shorter time periods. Our beneficiaries are happy to be reunited with their friends and to once again be busy with KEC activities. Each day small groups of beneficiaries come to the center for two hour educational programs run by our team of professionals. 

In an effort to gradually re-open the center one of our first group activities was to take advantage of the nicer weather and organize regular walks around town. One of the most interesting of these outings was to the newly erected statue of Stefan Nemanja. This enormous statue was unveiled during the height of the restrictions so this was the first chance for most of our beneficiaries to experience it first hand.

Through this outing and others like it our beneficiaries got to see how the world changed a little while they were sheltering in place (a new statue) and how in some ways nothing had changed (KEC friends).

We at KEC hope that all of you are also once again experiencing the joys of the world that has been closed off for the past few months. We hope you get a chance to notice some of the things that have changed in the world but also appreciate the things that remained the same.

Thanks for your on-going support to our programming. Your support and good wishes have helped us endure this hard period.

Luka, 25 years old, is grateful that he found KEC before the Corona virus hit. After finishing an inclusive secondary school program with training to be a masseur Luka found himself at home for years with no prospects for work or to socialize with peers. In the fall of 2019 his mom, Snezana, brought him to see KEC. There he managed to find everything that was missing in one place—friends, work and a place to learn.

Right away he made new friends and actively participated in workshops, activities and outings.  His friend Marija says: “Luka is such a good friend. He always wants to help me. When I need it and even when I don’t. I like that when he saw M. pushing Z. around he stuck up for her and told M. to stop.”

Aleksandra, a KEC staff member says that: “working with Luka is a true reminder of why I choose this profession and the good that can come from it.” She says that although Luka is shy he wanted to be able to improve his public speaking skills. With her help he made a presentation about his work assembling PR materials to a group of professionals participating in a training program. “We were all impressed by his confidence, the quality of his presentation and most of all by his pride in his work. It was obvious that during his short time at KEC he had gained new skills and was excited about these new opportunities. As a professional seeing this transformation it is what makes me feel most fulfilled.” In addition to assembling PR materials, Luka works as a masseur, helps clean the center and takes care of the plants. After a few months of training and monitoring, the KEC team decided that Luka was ready for employment. In January 2020 Luka fulfilled one of his dreams and got his first paycheck from his first job.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 changed all of our lives and plans. Because of social distancing measures Luka can’t do his work as we had planned but he used this time to finish a massage course and to help out in the center whenever there was a need. Most importantly he managed to stay in touch with his new friends during this difficult period. He made it to KEC just in time!

We are all looking forward to the end of this period so that KEC can return to full operations and welcome Luka and his friends back to the center soon!