BCIF :: Grant Programs :: Social Transition :: Stories from Local Communities :: Association for Help to Persons with Mental Disabilities of the Municipality of Trstenik

Social Transition: Stories from Local Communities

Association for Help to Persons with Mental Disabilities of the Municipality of Trstenik
The House for Us in the Center of the City! bathed in sunshine

After 11 years of successful work, Association for Help to Persons with Mental Disabilities of the Municipality of Trstenik is satisfied.

Since its establishment, the Association had been using the premises of National Employment Service.  Due to the renovation work which had to be conducted in that institution, the Association continued their work for the following two years in a private house which had been assigned to them.

Another daycare center for persons with intellectual disabilities has been opened, this time in Trstenik in Central Serbia.

There are many smiling faces in front of the house, and their mutual feeling is the sense of pride.

Although it is winter time, that morning the Sun has bathed this house intended for twenty-five users from Trstenik and surrounding villages.  The house had been designed according to the European standards.

List of acknowledgments is long – the municipality, the Ministry and other relevant institutions, companies, entrepreneurs, individual donors...organization’s membership and partners gathered around their mutual goal – improving the life of persons with intellectual disabilities.

For successfully accomplished cooperation with numerous partners from public and business sector in Trstenik around the initiative for the building up of a more quality and more available daycare center for their users, the Association was awarded the first prize for their The House for Us in the Center of the City! project on the competition for best local partnership in 2009 in Serbia by „Places in the Heart“ fund.

The local self-government has reached a decision to allocate a parcel in the center of the city to the Association with the status of the „object of public interest“.  The self-government provided free building permits, infrastructure slots, construction supervision and complete logistic support.  “Bekament” company donated 23 tons of material for final works, while “Građevinar” enterprise worked under lower prices including 25 working days for free.  School students regularly visited activities at the Association.  From the sales of their works at the fair they bought toys which they donated.

This one-floor building, the area of which is 380 square meters, has not been completely adapted – the first floor needs to be furbished.  The Association will open the functional part of the house for about ten new users.

The ground floor is light, lively colors on the walls...spacious playroom.  There are computers, toys, books...In the second part of the space there is a dining room, bathroom, office and the rooms for work-occupational activities and training, for the work on plastic bag making machine and weaving looms.  And that is not all –a small work center for the training of users for the making of handy objects out of clay will be opened there.  The objects will be sold at appropriate manifestations.  In order to employ and engage in work persons with disabilities, the Association has networked other organizations which work with persons with disabilities from Trstenik, in order to mutually advocate for municipality’s support in encouraging employers.

And while the older are taking a look at rooms and the garden and having conversations, some children are impatiently waiting for the party to start, to open up the house in the center of the city in their own manner.  They can expect a big lawn in the spring since the seeds had already been planted.

Since 2006, Association for Help to Persons with Mental Disabilities of the Municipality of Trstenikhas gone through various programs of Balkan Community Initiatives Fund.  They are currently one of the five partner organizations on Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Serbia through Employment project, which is being financed by the European Union.  Part of the funds for the construction of the house and the purchase of a van for transporting daycare center’s users has been provided by BCIF in cooperation with Cooperating Netherlands Foundations for Central and Eastern Europe through Social Transition program.

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