Thursday, 23.04.2020.
Assistance and support to the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 epidemic
Group 484, with the support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade, provides an emergency support to the most vulnerable groups in the societies of Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. By providing them with financial means, the supported organisations and institutions (Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, BELhospice Palliative Care Centre, Diocesan Caritas Srem from Serbia and Civic Alliance from Montenegro) will improve access to their services, the provision of which is encumbered by the Covid-19 epidemic. This will also enable them to provide humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable in their communities.
The Commissariat for Refugees and Migration in Serbia will, through the support, improve the conditions for maintaining personal hygiene in reception centres and asylum centres all across Serbia by providing hygiene sets for over 9000 migrants and refugees accommodated in the centres. This will contribute to preventing the spread of the coronavirus in collective centres and to maintaining a stable health situation. To recover from the adverse effects on the mental health that the Covid-19 epidemic may bring about, besides the humanitarian aid for migrants and refugees in Šid municipality, DiocesanCaritas Srem will also organise sewing workshops and occupational activities that will ensure some quality time for the migrants and refugees, making them turn their thoughts to more positive topics and thus help themselves and the others through their work. In addition, Caritas will support elderly people in this municipality by providing them with food parcels and anti-bacterial products aimed at preventing the spread of the virus.
The Roma, the poor, the single parents, the homeless and the persons with disabilities will be supported by the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation whose representatives and volunteers in six towns across Serbia will hand out hygiene sets and food parcels and thus ensure that the fundamental existential needs of those in need are met. Moreover, the Foundation will support local communities in implementing preventive healthcare measures as a response to the epidemic.
During the epidemic and the emergency, the level of anxiety and depression with the sick and their families increases, so the BELhospice Palliative Care Centre will provide counselling and psychosocial support to cancer patients. Furthermore, BELhospice volunteers and staff will be provided within this Project with additional hygiene and protective products in order to provide an adequate support to patients in a form of hygiene sets, phones, wheelchairs and other medical equipment.
In order to inform the public about the problems faced by the most vulnerable ones, the Civic Alliance from Montenegro will conduct a campaign on social networks to shed light on the current situation and also to draw attention to the necessary solidarity of all members of the society aimed at overcoming the adverse effects of the epidemic. Besides the campaign, representatives of the Civic Alliance will provide humanitarian aid packages to the Roma, the elderly, the children without parental care, and to refugees and migrants staying in the territory of Montenegro.
The supported organisations and institutions will jointly contribute to creating a safer society during the epidemic and to the protection of all its members.
Providing support to the abovementioned organisations and institutions, as our contribution to facing the adverse effects of the COVID-19 epidemic, is not complete. Therefore, in the forthcoming period we will have other partners as well.
