SOS Children’s Villages Serbia, within their Solidarity program, an emergency assistance program that started in August of last year, have been working to ease the suffering and offer financial, psychological and social assistance to the refugees from the Near East on their way through Serbia.

As an organization focused on child care, as well as assistance to children and families in need, SOS Children’s Villages Serbia is aware of the fact that in any crisis, especially in wars creating those seeking refuge, children suffer most.

Last week, representatives of this organization were notified by members of their mobile team that there is a quadriplegic girl in the park near the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, who is in urgent need of a specialized wheelchair so that she can resume her journey in better conditions, SOS Children’s Villages procured and donated a wheelchair for little Amin.

Amin is 13 years old and has been traveling with her family for four months from Iraq, through Europe, to their destination – Sweden. This is already a difficult, exhausting and uncertain journey made even harder for Amin and her family since Amin cannot move without assistance and her family lacks the necessary medical equipment – her father carries her in his arms.

Providing adequate care for a sick child is difficult even in normal circumstances, however on a four-month trek from Iraq, with all the dangers and effort involved, it seems almost impossible. Little Amin’s family carried her in their arms to Serbia, determined to take her further reminding us all how there is a strong impulse in all of us to provide a safe life for one’s family, and that no child or family member should ever find themselves in similar situation like hundreds of thousands of people who have been passing through Serbia in the past months.

Realizing the urgency of providing this family with a specialized wheelchair, and because they will be resuming their journey soon, employees of SOS Children’s Villages did everything in their power to obtain it quickly. The family’s gratitude was indescribable, as well as the feeling among the SOS team members, who were able to make the journey a little easier for them.

SOS Children’s Villages Serbia are members of SOS Children’s Villages International, founded 1949 who are providing assistance to 1,200,000 people in 134 countries. SOS Children’s Villages are present in Serbia since 2004, providing for children without parental care in SOS Children’s Village Kraljevo, Center for Family Support in Nišu, foster family support programs, youth employment programs in Belgrade and emergency assistance programs after the earthquake in Kraljevo, floods in Obrenovac and Lazarevac and assisting refugees moving through Serbia.

Apart from providing direct care for children and families, SOS Children’s Villages Serbia have created a Safe place for Children, Mother and Child Corner, ICT corner and Family Corner as well as support of a mobile team’s “Superbus”, which distributes financial and in-kind donations.