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By Suzana Markovic, Agence France-Presse
BELGRADE: The plight of Luja, a 16-year-old who
stopped going to school because he couldn’t afford books, reflects
that of the hundreds of homeless children in Belgrade.
Instead of getting an education, he guards a
private car parking lot, scraping just enough together to be able to
survive.
Luja’s story is similar to those of some of
the estimated 500 homeless children and teenagers who, during the
day, wander along the grimy streets of the Serbian capital.
Most of them are Roma, but of different
backgrounds, some having run away from their biological or adoptive
parents, and others having fled orphanages or youth centres.
Many are refugees. Those who fled the southern
territory of Kosovo in recent years joined ones who left their homes
during the wars in neighbouring Bosnia and Croatia in the early
1990s.
Social workers fear Kosovo’s declaration of
independence from Serbia on February 17 could still bring a new wave
of refugees as many Serbs and ethnic minorities living there might
decide to flee north.
“I left school four years ago because I could
not buy books and school supplies,” Luja told AFP.
“Watching the cars at the parking lot at least
brings some money,” he explained.
After a day spent begging in the streets, trying
to attract the attention of indifferent passers-by, cleaning
windshields at main crossroads or minding luxury cars, these
children return to what they consider their homes: abandoned
basements or even drainage holes.
Some 300,000 children in Serbia are affected by
poverty, have no access to medical care, nor a proper education,
according to Judita Reichenberg of the United Nations Children’s
Fund in Serbia
Only recently, a non-governmental group, the
Center for the Integration of Youths (CIM), opened a daycare centre
for street children, offering them a place to eat, medical and
psychological check-ups and medication, if needed.
The daycare facility, housed in the Rex Cultural
Centre in downtown Belgrade, is open for five hours every afternoon.
The bar in the centre, a popular site for
alternative music concerts, art exhibitions and independent films,
is during that time transformed into a movable kitchen and a dining
hall.
But it soon became too small to accommodate all
those needing help.
“I come here because there is food and drinks.
There is also a nurse to check our health,” said Denis, leaning on
a ping-pong table covered with a linen cloth for meals.
As he spoke, a volunteer off-loaded a pile of
clothes on the table, sparking a mad rush by the children to find
trousers and jackets in their own size.
The CIM organisation says it has been taking
care of more than 300 street children and teenagers for three years.
Each of them has their own history to tell. But
it is mostly because of mistreatment and misery in their homes that
the children decided to live on the streets.
Scorned and rejected, they often become victims
of sexual abuse, volunteers say. As a result, many of them turn to
prostitution or drugs.
“We know that some of them are drug addicts.
Although drugs and alcohol are forbidden (here), we welcome these
children here because we want them to feel safe,” said the
centre’s coordinator, Mila Muskinja.
But the hostile attitude of the general
population towards the street children has complicated the group’s
activities, as it had to close a similar centre since tenants
complained of their presence.
“That centre was open around the clock, but we
had to close it as the tenants considered it a threat to their
security,” said CIM official Milica Djordjevic.
In coordination with the Belgrade city
government’s welfare department, the organisation is planning to
open another 24-hour centre in the coming months.
Although some Belgraders offer aid to the centre,
mostly second-hand clothes, there are not many of those giving away
what children need most: compassion and affection.
“Every sweater is obviously appreciated, but a
change of attitude would be even more,” stressed Djordjevic.
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