Marko, director of the CIM Association gives us news from Belgrade. While Serbia declared a state of emergency and introduced curfews to stem the spread of the virus, the association had to temporarily close its programmes and services because it was unable to maintain them in secure conditions. Marko warns of the precarious situation of families living in informal settlements and he and his teams are trying to find alternatives to help them.
“We had one case of coronavirus in the organization but luckily our colleague is better now. She will leave hospital tomorrow and go back home to stay in isolation. Luckily, we had no other cases of coronavirus in the organization and they are all good."
In accordance with current epidemiological situation related to COVID-19 virus Republic of Serbia declared a state of emergency on March 15th. The population is prohibited from going out between 5 pm and 5 am and during the weekends from 3 pm to 5 am. Schools and preschools are completely closed and our Ministry of Education organized online classes. This is a big problem for our beneficiaries because they do not have adequate conditions to follow online classes. People over 65 years old are not allowed to leave the house at all. Officially we have 785 cases of coronavirus but I believe that number is much bigger. They tested only 3084 persons until now. Mortality is not high which is good but there is a real possibility that this number will go higher.
Serbia closed borders so no one can go in or out. Government cancelled all public transportation and they closed public parks and all other public spaces. Among the population there is a fear because no one knows when will be the end of this pandemic. Everyone is buying groceries manically and there is lack of hygiene supplies especially masks, gloves and medical alcohol.
In the next few days our government will decide if they will introduce more stringent measures. We are all waiting to see what will happen with new measures.
Regarding this situation CYI has temporarily suspended provision of its services and programs, including Drop in Shelter for street involved children and our social enterprise "Cafebar 16" starting from March 18th 2020.This decision was made taking into consideration Order adopted by the City Emergency Headquarters by which it was ordered to Secretariat for Social Welfare that all services, recognized by Law on social protection as daily services, must be closed. Bearing in mind the characteristics of families that we are working with, lack of health insurance and no protective measures undertaken by the responsible authorities for people living in informal settlements, our assessment was that gathering of larger number of children at the same place will increase the risk of COVID-19 infection. Our decision was correct and on place especially after we found out that one of our employees has the coronavirus.
Since no protective measures were undertaken by the responsible authorities for people living in informal settlements, we launched an appeal to the Ministry of Labor Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs and to the Secretariat for Social Protection of city of Belgrade, asking for provision of adequate support to children and adults living in informal settlements. Regarding this matter we also made a contact with UN Country Team in Serbia, Delegation of EU, Save the children and other donors and provided them with information on the situation in informal settlements in Belgrade where CYI provides its services. For now everyone was just collecting information about needs and numbers. Response is going very slowly.
Today we will submit a project proposal to the Embassy of Switzerland in Serbia with the goal to distribute food and hygiene (non cash vouchers) to 500 families living in informal settlements. Beside vouchers, we will distribute printed materials, leaflets, with basic information regarding protection measures, government recommendations, and other relevant information regarding protection from COVID-19 infection. These leaflets will be written both in Serbian and Roma languages, but also adjusted to illiterate people. For now this is only a proposal and in the next few days I think we will receive an answer. Also, through CYI Philanthropy program we have already started with money fundraising for supplies (food and hygiene) that will be distributed when all safety conditions are fulfilled.
We are worried because there is no one to help the population in informal settlements. Unfortunately, we cannot go in the settlements because currently we cannot secure adequate protection for our beneficiaries and our staff. CYI professional team is in regular contact with more than 150 families in order to follow their basic needs but also to provide psychosocial assistance and support. We hope that our advocacy will soon achieve results and that they will receive food and other necessities. Psychosocial support is organized in order to support the children's well-being, mental health, and positive attitude and to nurture interpersonal relations with family members in the current situation. Our social workers and outreach team are in constant communication with formal institutions. But like I mentioned we cannot provide adequate protection neither to children nor our staff so all our activities are based online or via telephone.
Our programs will not be shut down after COVID-19 crisis, on the contrary, our beneficiaries needs will increase and we will need to engage even more resources to compensate for what is missed during this period. On the top of the list will be schooling and education in general, then hygiene, daily habits and routine etc. I strongly believe that we will be able to secure funding for all our programs and that we will soon continue with our work. At this point it is very important to keep all the people at work.”
Testimony of Marko, Director of the CIM (CYI), Serbia