Djurdjina P., a twelve-year-old girl from Krupanj, posed for a photo: she put on a new T-shirt and put a smile on her face. She wanted to look nice like all the other girls, but her smile vanished as soon as the light ceased. Her fear emerges when the night comes. Since her family's house was washed away by the floods a year and a half ago she'd rather spend the night with her mom and dad than in her bed alone. The flood almost destroyed the entire town. Her home disappeared as well as her carefree life.
In a small town such as Krupanj there is no industry and people mostly work on the land. Her mother is a saleswoman in a local shop, and her father is disabled. Due to injuries at work he is unemployed. They barely have enough income to make ends meet.
As a young married couple, Djurdjina’s parents began to build a house. It took years to complete. When the house was finished they were relived. The older daughter received a scholarship to attend a business college. Djurdjina got a bicycle as a birthday present. She dreamt of one for a long time. Just when it seemed that they were happy, an unprecedented downpour swelled the river, undermined the hill and their house disappeared in a matter of minutes. The flood swept away everything Djurdjina and her family owned.
Trying to save his family with a frightened look in his eyes, Djurdjina's father started running all over the house. He grabbed his younger daughter, put her on his shoulders and ran outside. The house fell apart behind them.
Thanks to many donations her family was recently granted a small prefabricated house on the other side of Krupanj. Djurdjina's family was at a new beginning, but they could not stop thinking about their previous life, the nice things they used to do together. Once again Djurdjina got a bed of her own, but she could not sleep in peace. She is still afraid to be alone at night. As the sky gets dark she begins to fear sweeping waters.
Sometimes she feels lonely during the day. She had to leave her friends on the other side of the town. She misses her best friend Djuka. They were neighbors. While they were growing up they used to play every day. The girls shared their secrets as good friends do. Djurdjina misses those days very much.
"I'd give anything to be together with my Djuka again", says Djurdjina. „She feels lonely. She has no friends in her new neighborhood,” says Djurdjina's mom, Snezana.
Djurdjina misses her bicycle too, which she received as a birthday present. She learnt how to ride and enjoyed it for just two weeks. Now she can just dream of it. The scholarship she received enables her solely to attend school regularly. Djurdjina is an excellent student of the sixth grade.
“We appreciate any help. Thank you very much for your support of Djurdjina. The scholarship she gets means a lot to her. She can get education as the other children do," says Djurdjina's mom.
Little Djurdjna is grateful to everyone who has helped her. Her smile is a gift to all the good people.
Pomoc deci is grateful to everyone who has generously donated to the Support Program for Children in Flooded Areas of Serbia. Even a small amount of money means a lot for many boys and girls to go forward.
Thanks to your donations, in September and October we have been able to provide scholarships for ten children, and other 15 children received school books.
We hope that your support to these youngsters will help them overcome their traumas in days to come.
Please donate whatever you can end be the one of us who would be happy to help as many children as possible!
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Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your support over the last three months! You have helped us raise £3,000 and this has made it possible for us to receive additional £3,000 from PayPal in UK!
With this money, we have decided to open a Call for applications from children from the families affected by the floods for one of 15 full scholarships in the coming school year, to provide 20 sets of textbooks and 15 school meals for the children who do not win the scholarship.
We have also planned to set aside some funds for necessary new shoes and clothes for those children whose parents have no means to provide them.
“Last year, when I went to school in my flip flops I was so cold that I got sick. My mother said I wouldn’t go to school in winter because she did not want me to get sick again and had no money to take me to the doctor. When my teacher asked my Dad which shoe size for the new training shoes I needed, I couldn’t believe it. And I still didn’t believe that I would get new shoes and could go to school until you came with those beautiful blue training shoes. Thank you so much for that! I finished the grade with very good grades and it was possible only because I could go to school when it was cold”, said Jovana from Obrenovac who completed the seventh grade in June.
Bonus Day: If you decide to help our project again on September the 16th, your donation will be 30 percent increased by matching funds from GlobalGiving. Please, help us help more children!
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Andjelina has lost her home as have other thousands of children over the last year in several tides of flooding that have hit Serbia since May 2014. With your help, we have provided Andjelina with clothes, shoes and on reglar basis we have been able to provide some hygienic necessities. She is completing the second grade now and has managed to get all best grades despite still living in the ruins of her previous home.
"I only wish I had one of my dolls back, all of them are gone... Sometimes, I'd like to talk to them and do their hair like I used to do. With this shampoo, I could make their hair look as nice as mine ...", she says, holding tight to the bits of the package that we took to her familiy close to the banks of the Danube.
The financial support of people like YOU is what makes it possible for us to make children like Andjelina smile. We have helped more than 300 children so far, some with clothes and school necessities, some with the stipends, some with regular school meals so that they can have at least one cooked meal a day.
Your donation from NOW till July the 10th can go even further – a matching campaign is underway! If with your help we manage to raise 3000£ till July the 10th, GlobalGiving UK will match your donations with the additional 3000£. Go to our project page www.globalgiving.co.uk/17206 to take advantage of this opportunity.
As always - THANK YOU for your ongoing generosity and support!
Yours,
Pomoc deci team
Dear Friends,
Over the last three months You have helped us raise additional 3,000 US Dollars and and so far, within only nine months, we have gathered almost 50,000 US Dollars!
Just last week, we visited a family in Obrenovac, the town that was almost completely under water last Spring and took clothes, food, toiletries and some toys to six children who are still without any electricity or water in Zvecka, a suburban part of the town.
Marija B who is only 13 years old and still in the elementary school, introduced us to her siblings and parents.
“My eldest brother, Stefan, is 20 years old and my youngest sister Katarina is only 3 years old. We all live here and it is very hard to live without electricity and light, especially during the winter when it gets dark early in the day. Danilo (15), Stevan (14) and I are in the elementary school, whilst Jovan (4) and Katarina should be going to kindergarten, but we can’t afford it. Sometimes, if I want to learn and do my homework for school, I have to wake up as soon as the Sun rises to be able to see what I need to read and write.”
Both parents used to work and provide for the family, but they are both out of work now. The bakery where Nebojsa, the father, used to work, was completely destroyed together with all the machines in the floods and since then has not been opened. “I try to find work wherever possible. I help other people, who have been flooded clean up the debris and rebuild their homes and I sometimes get paid”, he says with an uneasy shrug. Tanja, his wife is taking up any kind of work she can find (cleaning homes, ironing, gardening etc.), but they both can hardly earn enough for food for the family.
In addition to the things we gave them, we also signed a contract for the stipend for Marija and are looking for the ways to help them get back the running water and electricity.
We would like to help the youngest two children start going to kindergarten and we can only do that if you continue supporting our efforts to assist the children hit by the terrible floods not only last Spring but also by a new wave in south Serbia just less than a month ago.
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
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Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your continued support to our efforts to help children and their families affected by the floods in Serbia this year! With additional 13,000 USD that you have donated, over the last three months, we have managed to raise a total of 46,500 USD since we started the campaign.
Over the last three months, we have provided stipends for the full school year to 15 children. Among them is little Andrija T.
He is only six years old and lives alone with his mother in Paracin. The subterranean waters in May destroyed part of their home, bathroom and toilet, but they could not get support from the municipality because only “direct damages” produced from the rain were eligible for compensation. Social services even threatened to take Andrija away from his mother because of totally unacceptable living conditions without any running water or sewage system working. And all of that happened only two months after father died of a heart attack. We agreed to help Andrija directly by providing him with the stipend, providing for a free snack at preschool and have managed to gather some construction material so that his mother can rebuild bathroom and toilet.
“My Mom says that I will eat with my friends too, at school now. Before, when they were eating I was sitting and drawing something waiting for them to come back” – said Andrija excitedly when we went to see them and sign the contract for the support.
With your donations, we also paid for free snacks in school for 56 children in ten municipalities, have assisted five families in buying the heaters for winter and have provided winter clothes and shoes for 34 children in seven municipalities.
We now have the opportunity to raise more funds through End of the Year Campaign. The campaign begins at 00:00:01 EST (06:01 am Belgrade time) on December 1st and runs through 23:59:59 pm EST (05:59 am Belgrade time) on December 31st. We need to raise at least $3,000 from 30 donors in order to qualify for a bonus award. And there are several awards that if we win will go directly to the children and their families that have suffered from the floods.
Please, help us help these children. Let your friends and colleagues know what we are trying to do, how they can get involved and how much it means to these children.
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