Serbia

Half a million children in Serbia are not getting the quality of education they have a right to. That’s around one in three of Serbia’s children.

One in three children are either out of school, or in school but not learning. Lessons may not be in a language they understand or schools may not supported to accommodate differences in ethnicity or ability. Unknown numbers of children with disabilities spend their lives never leaving home.

We’re not the only ones determined to change this. PR and media partners are supporting our ‘Do Something, For Real!’ campaign to get other companies and the general public behind us as we push the government to put in place the education policies that Serbia’s children desperately need.

What’s the problem?

South East Europe was hugely affected by conflicts in the 1990s. With the immediate emergency aid and rehabilitation work over, action is now needed on issues that underlie the region’s longer term development. Education is a key to that, but by neglecting the needs of large numbers of children, the countries of the region are denying themselves the opportunity to build a better future for all its citizens.

Serbia recently halved its poverty rates in just five years, but education gaps between children from different socio-economic and ethnic groups continue to widen. The country’s Millennium Development Goals Coordinator says education activities should be a priority — and we couldn’t agree more.

190,000 children in Serbia live in poverty, without basic conditions for schooling.
Between 80% and 90% of children with disabilities never go to school at all. That’s anything from 84,000 to 162,000 children who are not at school.
66% of Roma children do not even finish primary school.

What are we doing to solve it?

Our years of work on ‘inclusive education’ in Serbia have improved school practices, but we still need to change laws and government policy to ensure best practice is enshrined nation-wide.

We’re getting people across Serbia to send a SMS of support (over 12,000 people so far) to show the government they believe ALL children have a right to education. And we’re working with local partners and businesses to set up and fund the basic services that will help children get an education — things as simple as a ramp so children who use wheelchairs can get into the classroom. We’re also supporting these partners to advocate for changes in policy and practice.

It’s all part of our global Rewrite the Future campaign. Last year, across South East Europe our work on this campaign directly helped 1,154 children attend preschool and 1,019 children go to primary school. And our advocacy work indirectly benefits countless more.

Save the Children in Serbia

We've worked in Serbia since 1993. Until 2003, we focused on providing emergency aid and rehabilitation work. Since then, we have increasingly worked in two key areas: inclusive education and child protection.

We’re enabling more children to go to school, including children with disabilities
We’re helping children to get a better quality of education
We’re improving the care children without parental care receive
We’re helping to keep children safe — supporting services for vulnerable children and fighting trafficking

Over the past ten years, more than 70,000 children have benefited from our programmes in Serbia - children with and without disabilities, Roma children, and those who are poor or who have been exposed to abuse or violence. Among 20,000 direct beneficiaries were marginalised children - Roma, disabled, internally displaced and poor children.

We’re getting children into school and learning

Education authorities have started to replicate the good practices that we have developed as part of ongoing education reforms. For example, the local authority in Pirot, Serbia, has set up a database to identify Roma children and children with disabilities who were missing out on school. They’ve allocated funding to get these children back into school, and their model has been copied in other towns.

Luka playing in the Toy Library

In addition to community children centres, school clubs and mobile playrooms, we have established more than 30 Toy Libraries across Serbia so that disabled and other excluded children can develop their potential.

We train and provide start-up funding to schools and parents’ associations so they can run these small scale projects and raise awareness of the rights of disabled children in the wider community.

And we’re supporting children to become their own advocates for equal access and better quality of education for all children.

We’re improving services and keeping children safe

We’re changing perceptions of institutional care of children, with foster care now perceived as a strong alternative. We’ve carried out research into the level of violence in Serbia’s residential care institutions. And we’re using this report to argue the case for family-based care.

There are over 1,100 disabled children still living in residential care in Serbia. We’re recruiting, training and supporting a national network of specialised foster families to provide much needed care for children with disabilities to leave institutions. And we’re working with local communities to establish effective support services and ensure officials are trained to provide on-going specialised assistance.

And we’ve successfully lobbied for children’s rights to be part of the European Union’s Feasibility Study for Serbia. Child welfare and social policy reforms are now recognised as mid-term priorities for Serbia.

Across the region progress on fulfilment of children’s rights in the EU pre-accession process has become part of the countries’ annual progress reports, to which we provide comments jointly with UNICEF and national civil society organisations.

Save the Children in South East Europe

Our work in South East Europe dates back to early last century, when we provided food to people in need after the First World War. In response to the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, we set up operations in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.

Since 2005, we have adopted a regional approach, increasing the links between our work in these four countries. We also support work in Albania by the International Save the Children Alliance.

Over the last 15 years our work in South East Europe has focused on poverty reduction, an end to discrimination and helping people influence the economic and political decisions that affect their lives.

As the countries of South East Europe make progress on their different paths towards EU accession, we've decided that it'll soon be time to hand over to local partners and other Save the Children Alliance members. We're committed to fulfilling our promises to the region's children (and our project partners and donors). So as we work on a smooth transition, we're also continuing to drive forward our ambitious aims to achieve change for children.

To do this, we're building on our strong tradition of working with partners so that civil society support is deeply rooted prior to our departure. And we've been stepping up the pressure on the region’s duty-bearers to make sure that essential policies and practices are firmly in place. We hope that in this way the children of South East Europe, regardless of ethnicity, disability or social status, will be able to enjoy their right to education and protection long after our operations wrap up in December 2009.

To learn more about our work in South East Europe, download the South East Europe regional brief (PDF 92KB).

Latest news

Wednesday 21 November 2007 Children in Serbia are being held in institutions: 1,400 children with disabilities have been placed in five residential institutions in Serbia. None of these is exclusively for children. Find out what we're doing about it.
Thursday 18 October 2007 Children demand better schools: "All children should be able to go to school and finish it regardless of their nationality or religion, and no matter whether they are poor or not."

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