Thanks to the help provided by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in total 200.000 euros) and Caritas Germany, from 1^st of September to 31^st of December Caritas Serbia was able to provide support to refugees that are passing through our country, trying to ease their burden on the difficult trip towards a safer future. With this support, in main transit points of Serbia (Presevo, Belgrade, Kanjiza, Subotica, Sid…), Caritas was able to provide:

• 30.000 refugees with food parcels.
• 12.300 refugees (mostly women and children together with their families) with hygiene kits, to improve their personal hygienic situation after a long and heavy trip.
• 2.050 adults and children with winter clothes to be protected against rain and cold.
• Refugees in Kanjiža, Subotica and Sid with access to basic health care services.
• 650 children in Presevo with a break from their everyday life as refugees, by childcare activities organised by the Caritas field officers.

While providing support Caritas was taking care that priority is given to the most vulnerable refugees like: women, children, people with disability, elderly, people with health problems. The support of the German government to refugees in Serbia provided through Caritas will continue also in 2016.

In 2015 Caritas was active in providing support to the refugees that are passing through Serbia, hoping for a better life in the Western Europe. With the support of Caritas Luxembourg in August Caritas started providing food packs for the refugees, at the Reception center Presevo.

            From the 1st of September Caritas has started the Emergency Appeal project of helping the refugees, funded by the Caritas network. The aid is provided in places where the refugees enter to Serbia, mostly at the border with Macedonia: in the Reception center Presevo, but also at the border with Bulgaria: in Dimitrovgrad, Bosilegrad and Zajecar, than in Belgrade: in the park near the main city bus and railway station, in the Asylum center Krnjaca and in Miksaliste, informal refugee aid point. Caritas is providing assistance also on the places where the refugees are leaving Serbia, at the border with Croatia, in Adasevci and Sid. The aid has also been provided in the north of the country, at the border with Hungary, when this route was in use.

Caritas Emergency Appeal project involves 43 different type of action: distribution of food and hygiene parcels, warm clothes, shoes, socks, winter hats, rain jackets, raincoats and sleeping bags, counseling and translation services. At the end of November 2015 at the Reception center Presevo, together with the organization “Life Aid” from Vranje, Caritas started distributing warm soup and tea, so refugees can get something warm during the cold days.

Other than these activities, with the financial support of Catholic Relief Services, in Miksaliste – Belgrade, Caritas has set up a mobile container with five showers. This way refugees will be able to take a shower in heated premises, with hot water and get ready for the long road still ahead of them. Other than the showers Caritas has also provided them with shampoo, towels, hair dryers and maintenance/cleaning staff for these sanitary premises.

Caritas has also provided medicines and vitamines for the refugees, on the request of the doctors from the Health center Presevo, while in Dimitrovgrad Caritas has provided butane bottles for the heating of the ambulance and the means for small repairs of the reception center and the warehouse.

By the end of December 2015 Caritas in Serbia has helped more than 100.000 refugees.