Caritas Day 2008

“They deserve attention”

This year, regarding the Caritas Day, our organization is focusing on Home care for the elderly.

Home Care is a program intended for the elderly people that are sick or physically handicapped. The project employs staff teams that visit the homes and help the elderly in need. About 2.800 people receive the help of Caritas in this field, per month. Thanks to the people of good will – our donators – all of our services are free of charge.

More about the Home care program can be read here.

By donating 100 RSD you can supply one person in need with a one-time help. By donating 2.000 RSD you can supply one person in need with a month-long care by the Caritas personnel. By donating 24.000 RSD you can supply a year-long care for those in dire need.

If you wish to give your support to the realization of Caritas’ home care program, you can make a donation to the following account: 220-31186-42, or you can contact us.

October 10th – World Mental Health Day

“Mental illness is not contagious, but apathy is”

The important part of our work is the fight against the stigmatization that is present in the society, in order to eliminate the barriers that often tend to exclude the patients and their families from complete integration into the social political and business life. Last year also, Caritas strived to promote the campaign throughout Serbia in order to raise awareness of civil society towards this subject. The slogan of the campaign is “Mental illness is not contagious, but apathy is”.

The campaign took part from 3rd – 22nd October 2008 and was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Religion, National Mental Health committee, as well as with World Health Organization, non government organizations that operate in the field of mental health and the entire Caritas Serbia and Montenegro network.

Program for October 2008 (pdf 70Kb)

Second home care forum

June 4th, 5th and 6th 2008
Belgrade, Serbia

The ceremonial opening of the congress, followed by the photo exhibition saw the representatives of Caritas, Embassies, EU, Ministries and Government speaking regarding the forum subject. The president of the Bishop Conference and Caritas Serbia and Montenegro, Msgr. Stanislav Hočevar, spoke to the participants of the conference at the opening, and the director of Caritas Serbia and Montenegro, rev. Vladislav Varga, thanked all the present speakers and participants for their attendance. General Secretary Marius Wanders addressed the participants in the name of Caritas Europe, as well as the ambassador of Europian committee in Belgrade, his Excellency Mr. Josep M. Lloveras, councellor to president Tadić, Mr Trivo Inđić, and the First secretary of German embassy, Mrs Heike Pörksen. In the name of the Ministry of religion the spokesperson was Mr Nevena Vitošević Ćeklić, and in the name of Ministry of health - Dr Dubravka Saranović Račić.

In the following days of the forum, a proclamation and framework for strategic document of Caritas Europe for the home care project were presented. A large number of participants made the experience and know-how exchange in this area possible. Some of the participating countries presented their home care program strategy. The EU cooperation in this project is an important element of its realization. Therefore, the EU policy regarding Home care, information technology and technical support was presented.

Prevention, care activation and quality and patient need management were some of the main subjects of workgroups during the congress.

Fundraising campaign

home for handicapped children and adolescents in Vetenik

On Thursday, March 27th 2008, in the home for handicapped children and adolescents in Vetenik, Caritas handed the donation it gathered during its campaign during the holiday season. The target group of the campaign was children with special needs. The campaign was held on national level as well as in every city and town that Caritas is active in.

Caritas received great help in realization of this campaign from the media houses such as B92, RTS, Delta TV and TV Panonia. The radio and TV clip was played, urging the society to participate in fundraising campaign for the children with special needs by sending the SMS or calling the telephone number for donations. The campaign was also supported by the mobile phone operators MTS and VIP, as well as the phone operator Telekom Serbia and an array of printed media.

During the visit to the chidden home, Caritas visited their media library that was in the preparation phase at the time. It is planned for this media library to be equipped with the modern computers, books, as well as entertainment and educational content. As the media library had only one used computer, Caritas directed the donation to equipping this room where the children will spend most of their daily time. Four computers with operating systems were bought, installed and prepared for use to the children’s home.

The donation was handed to the children’s home director Nedeljko Bekić by the President of Caritas Serbia and Montenegro, Msgr Stanislav Hočevar, and the director of Caritas Serbia and Montenegro, rev. Vladislav Varga. After that, the Caritas representatives were shown the children’s home premises, visited the children and talked to them. The press conference was held, where the mutual responsibility of all people to help children and young with special needs was accented. The conference had a good response in the local and national media. Beside this donation, caritas directed a part of donation to the education of the employees in the children’s home and implementation of the new, modern method of treating schizophrenia with the Sensor room.