Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina: Order of Malta income generation programmes to continue.
High unemployment rates and low productivity paralyse the economic development on the Balkans. Especially returning minorities suffer from this situation. With the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office, the income generation programmes of the Order of Malta (Malteser Hilfsdienst, Germany) in Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina can now be continued. The set-up of small businesses and the resume of agricultural production is supported by means of knock-on financing. Beneficiary enterprises are for instance handcraft businesses like carpentries and agricultural projects like milk cow or cave breeding farms. A repayment component – 15 to 50 per cent of the total amount – can be repaid in products and services. It is aimed directly at supporting for example hospitals or socially disadvantaged people. The Order of Malta is thus able to make a sustainable contribution to reduce unemployment and to increase productivity on the Balkans.
Successful realisation of first nursing course.
In March the first nursing course in Serbia could be successfully concluded. After three months of studies, the students passed their final exams as nursing auxiliaries. The course had become possible thanks to a cooperation between the Malteser Foreign Aid Department and the Malteser Nursing School in Duderstadt, Germany with the aim of improving the nursing skills of professionals and non-professionals. The result is encouraging: some of the participants of the first course have already succeeded in finding a job. The course met high public interest. A second nursing course has already been started in May.
Serbia: extension of an old people’s home for the needy in Boka.
With financial support of Renovabis, the construction works for the extension of the old people’s home in Boka/Serbia could be started in April. For two years now, the Emergency Corps of the Order of Malta (Malteser Hilfsdienst) and the British Association of the Order of Malta have supported the house which offers not only accommodation and food but also care and community for elderly people in need. This old people’s home was founded and is directed by the local catholic priest. Private donations and regular transports of relief goods organized by Malteser groups of the archdiocese of München-Freising guarantee the maintenance of the medical care for the elderly and facilitate investments in the affiliated farm. With the extension of the building, the house can soon welcome additional residents.
