They are here: 107 women from 29 countries and a life that cannot wait

Photo: NGO Atina’s photo archive; workshop photos by Marija Vuković, social worker

Since the beginning of the year, NGO Atina has continued to work with migrant and refugee women and girls from different parts of the world at the Reception Centre in Bujanovac, the Asylum Centre in Obrenovac, as well as at the Open Club in Belgrade.

Disturbing posters against migrants have been removed from Belgrade buses

Photograph: STAW BLGRD

City public transport company JKP GSP “Belgrade” has committed to regularly control and remove posters and photographs of discriminatory and xenophobic content from their vehicles, after the reaction of the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality at the initiative of NGO Atina.

According to the official statistics in January 2018, there are 4,314 refugees and migrants in Serbia, most of whom are women and children. They are the most vulnerable group of the refugee and migrant population, especially when it comes to their exposure to human trafficking and all forms of gender-based violence.

The summer school “Young refugees as actors for social inclusion and intercultural dialogue” was organized with the support of the Council of Europe Youth Department, Global Platform for Syrian Students, Kiron Open Higher Education for Refugees, and Voice of Young Refugees in Europe. The course was held at the end of August 2017, at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal, and brought together more than 60 young refugees from Europe, students in forced mobility, and activists who are providing direct support to refugees.

It is important to include refugees themselves, as well as the local community, to provide feedback on what is needed in the system, so that we can advocate for changes to existing gaps, that is what the project “Building Together” is dealing with, said Marija Cvejic from the Association “Atina”, guest of the Novi dan broadcast.

“Our opinion is that the issue of refugee crisis is not the problem, but the fact that the system of values rooted in our society experienced its own crisis during this refugee crisis,” said the guest of the Morning topic.

A training session on the topic of monitoring was held for 16 members of the local network for monitoring and advocacy in Sid, within the project “Building Together”.

During the two days of the training, participants went through the entire monitoring cycle (overseeing, supervising, controlling) of the service and protection system that is dealing with refugees and migrants in Sid. Participants were introduced to a detailed plan of monitoring, went through goals and results, and finally summarized the researches through focus groups and in-depth interviews.

Atina at the conference “Good Practices and Challenges in Supporting Children in Migration”

On June 14, 2017, a conference “Good Practices and Challenges in Supporting Children in Migration” was held in Belgrade, organized by International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Save the Children.

During the month of May, a panel topic was organized by The Global Fund for Children in Dallas, Texas, on the topic “Trusting in the Power of Local: A Working Model for Transforming Lives”.

Association Atina and partners, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and NGO Macedonian Lawyers Association began implementing an international project “Building together”, during which work will be done on integration of migrants into the societies of Serbia and Macedonia.

The border town of Subotica, in northern Serbia, stands as a crude example of the terrible conditions experienced by thousands of people stranded across the Balkans.
As they try to cross the border with Hungary, they are routinely pushed back by police. Many of them live in makeshift camps. To survive, they rely on the assistance from volunteers and aid organizations, including Oxfam.