Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Centre in Belgrade, Serbia
Since the end of 2020, we were operating a WASH Centre in the heart of Belgrade five days a week, providing hot showers and free laundry service to refugees and people on the move. We went on outreach every morning to promote the centre, encouraging new arrivals to use the services available and access information about other organisations and services which could help them.
At our WASH Centre, people had the opportunity to get their clothes washed, exchange items of clothing, and use our facilities free of charge. These services not only provided comfort and dignity, but also helped prevent painful health conditions like scabies.
As part of our work as a member of the Border Violence Monitoring Network, our volunteers identified people with injuries or who had experienced violence and offered them to report and document these events.
Vital Material Aid in Belgrade, Serbia
In 2017, we established a warehouse in Belgrade in order to provide essential aid to the thousands of vulnerable people seeking safety in Serbia. Since then, our warehouse has become one of the last central aid warehouses in the country.
This space is stocked with essential aid including tents, blankets, sleeping bags, trousers, jumpers, shoes and winter wear. Since opening our warehouse, we have worked alongside grassroots organizations currently on the ground to distribute thousands of items of life-saving aid.
Camp Kitchens in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
From April 2017 to October 2018, in partnership with Oxfam Italia, we worked within Obrenovac Transit Center to provide lunch for up to 900 residents every day.
Here, we focused on developing a menu that met all nutritional needs, while also serving recipes that were informed by the many cultures represented within the camp. After serving over 300,000 meals, we trained and handed over to a team of paid locals who continue to coook many of the menu items that we developed.
In July 2018, due to a recent shift of the Balkan Route into Bosnia and Herzegovina, we sent a team to Sarajevo, where we worked with Aid Brigade to provide twice-daily hot meals to people sleeping rough. In early 2020, Aid Brigade began providing food from their community center as we focused our efforts on the newly opened Usivak Camp.
In November 2018, Usivak camp opened near Sarajevo. We sent our team of kitchen experts to design, set up, and staff a camp kitchen. From November 2018 until April 2019, with the support of Pomozi.ba, an incredible local organization, we distributed three meals per day for 700-800 residents, totaling over 260,000 meals by the time we trained and handed over to a paid local staff.
None of this would be possible without the financial support given through our volunteers, other groups working on the ground, and our passionate donors.
Free Shop for Camp Residents
From May to December 2019, we planned and facilitated a ‘Free Shop’ in Usivak Camp, near Sarajevo. With the support of Pomozi.ba and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), we provided residents of Usivak Camp with material aid. The Gre Shop was run on a point system which gave the people we support the opportunity to choose clothing and accessories that they truly needed and liked.
Through the duration of our time in Usivak Camp, we distributed over 10,000 items of essential articles of clothing including coats, trousers, and shoes. After eight months of running the Free Shop we trained a team and handed operations over to IOM, shifting our focus to distributing much needed material aid elsewhere through Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Shower and Laundry Services for New Arrivals, Serbia
Collectively organized by Non-Government Organizations, this location is where new arrivals in Serbia went for camp registration, legal advice, and access to social workers. Here we provided showers, laundry services, and a clothing exchange for people arriving in Belgrade after days or potentially weeks on the road. Alongside basic hygiene showers, our team also worked closely with Medecins Sans Frontieres to provide medical showers for those suffering from skin diseases.
After working hours, Miksaliste became a night shelter for the most vulnerable people who had not been allocated a space in one of Serbia’s camps. At this time, showers would be reopened for these individuals, usually accompanied minors. Access to washing facilities is vital for both health and comfort; a hot shower and a clean set of clothes can completely change someone’s day.
Non- Formal Education and Recreational Activities in Belgrade and Sarajevo
Women’s Sewing Space
Camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina offer little to no outlets and recreational activities for their residents. Starting in October 2019, we opened a sewing project within Usivak Camp near Sarajevo. This space provided female residents with sewing equipment and a safe and welcoming environment to partake in sewing workshops, mend defective clothing, or find new uses for unsuitable donations.
On top of daily sessions, weekly workshops were held by residents and volunteers to teach new methods and techniques, including knitting and general use and maintenance of sewing machines. Here women and children were always welcome to join and have the opportunity to openly communicate and express themselves.
Cinema Nights in the Camps
Building on our goal of promoting mental and emotional well-being, we held weekly cinema nights at the Obrenovac Transit Centre from 2017 to 2019. Between 200 and 300 residents usually attended, seeing it as a chance to get some distraction from everyday life at camp. In order to provide an authentic cinema experience, a team of eight volunteers spent their afternoon preparing popcorn, cooking chai, and making fresh lemonade to serve during the screening.
In November 2019, we had the opportunity to add cinema nights to the camp activities we were facilitating in Usivak Camp near Sarajevo. For two months, we held weekly screenings where roughly 100 residents came together for a film, popcorn, and fresh chai. Cinema nights were our way of providing at least a short, light-hearted escape from the bleak living conditions that exist within camps.
Azadi Community Center
While the situation in the Balkans is no longer in the news, there are still large numbers of refugees and migrants stuck in Serbia with little hope of being able to move forward. The negative effects on mental health and overall welfare are inevitable. Restlessness, frustration, and depression are common symptoms among those who feel stuck in Serbia.
In order to empower, create hope, and support well-being, we opened Azadi Community Center near Obrenovac Transit Centre. Azadi - meaning ‘freedom’ in Farsi and Urdu - aimed to provide a safe space outside of the camp where we offered recreational activities, skills-based learning, language lessons, and culture-sharing workshops. With a supportive atmosphere and the experience of a sense of progress, we fostered an environment of community and purpose.
Sport Program
Providing sports programs within Obrenovac Transit Centre gave us the opportunity to promote physical and psychosocial well-being. Camp residents joined us to participate in a variety of activities, including cricket, basketball, football, and board games. In order to manage, coach, and participate in activities, four days a week, a team of five volunteers brought sports equipment and refreshments to entertain.
Tournaments were organized where camp management, actors, and camp residents reunited to watch the games together.
