Relief for Refugee Families in Serbia
Action Deutschland Hilft and World Vision have joined hands in providing basic needs for refugee families arriving in Serbia, greeting them with aid packages and food items.
Mustafa's forehead is damp with sweat as he sits down on the concrete blocks at an improvised bus station with his wife, four children, sister, and two of her kids. They are taking a much-needed rest after a 10 day journey fleeing war-torn Syria. Between them a white plastic bag serves as a table cloth with canned food, bread, cookies and raisins.
Mustafa and his family had to travel through Turkey, Greece and Macedonia before reaching the south of Serbia, where they embarked on a long bus ride here. “The most difficult was in Greece,” he says, where “it was very crowded and kids had to walk 15 kilometers.” Mustafa’s family was one among many who received help through the project 'Child Focused Refugee Response' in Serbia, supported by Action Deutschland Hilft (ADH) and implemented by World Vision. The project aims to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable refugees in Serbia: children, pregnant women, and families with children. It includes the delivery of water and food packages consisting of bananas, canned food, bread, candy, raisins or nuts, wet wipes, and diapers.
Down the road a ways from Mustafa's family, Rahman Dibutaha is sitting with his wife and five children, which include a newborn. Their journey from Syria took five days. They have also just received a food package from ADH and World Vision and are anxious to continue their journey to either Germany or Sweden.
The refugee crisis in the Western Balkans brought ADH and World Vision together in their efforts to reach out to thousands of men, women and children. More than 5,000 people cross the border between Serbia and Croatia every day and many of them are exhausted from long journeys and in need of food and water.
Katharina Witkowski, World Vision’s Operations Manager, says that “ADH is one of the biggest supporters of World Vision, helping us in emergencies across the world. This cooperation dates almost five years back, during the Africa response when ADH supported our projects in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.” Katharina guesses that refugee arrivals today alone will exceed 4,000, with even greater numbers tomorrow. Thus the need for preparation: “We work in two shifts, covering morning and evening hours and distributions are going very well, refugees are rather happy when they see some people that want to help them, they are always very grateful and actually they help us distribute the packages in the buses.”
There are many more families in Serbia like Mustafa and Rahman's. Thousands of refugees are waiting to pass through the border between Serbia and Croatia. With the help from ADH, World Vision will reach out and provide support to as many refugees as possible in order to make their journey a little more bearable.
World Vision is responding to the refugee crisis in the Western Balkans by providing basic hygiene and food packages as well as child protection services.