I crossed the Montenegrin border in October 2020, and it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the country. Stunning landscapes combined with medieval old towns left me speechless more than once, and the welcoming people made me realize that Montenegro was the perfect place to settle for the next three months. This meant that it would be my first Christmas abroad, and it also meant that, unlike last year’s Christmas campaign of Giving Getaway, I would have the chance to set up a charity project on site.
That is what I believe, and that is why I decided to focus my research on organizations which do their best in supporting children in need. Soon, I came across the children’s home in Bijela in Kotor Bay, in fact the only one of this kind in the whole country. Since 1946 the “Dječiji Dom Mladost” in Bijela is taking care of children that are deprived of parental care and whose development is hindered by family circumstances and currently (as of December 2020) they accommodate 100 children aged between 2 and 18.
With the help of the Montenegrin government and generous investors, the children’s home Mladost in Bijela was able to modernize its facility and improve the standard of living significantly, bringing it to the same level of European standards in the area of educational institutions. Striving to create a healthy environment for the children to grow and develop various skills in order to prepare them for an independent life, the children’s home implemented educational and social activities, giving them the opportunity to engage in volunteering and work activities.
Combined with full time social support, high quality education and professional non-parental care, the children’s home Mladost lays the foundation of a bright and well-prepared future for the kids. So far about the “basic framework” of the kids and the exemplary work of the children’s home, but what is it now that we can do to help?
All in all, 2,195€ have been donated by 46 people from all around the world, which was enough to buy, gift-wrap and deliver the Christmas presents to the children’s home Mladost in Bijela on January 7th! The feedback and support I received from all the donors, my neighbors in Risan and people who contacted me on Instagram and Facebook left me speechless. A big thank you goes to Mike from Poland, my next-door neighbor and meanwhile good friend of mine, who supported me from the very beginning and who was there to help during the whole process! Most importantly, he helped me purchasing most of the gifts, which was much more work than I expected. It took us five whole days and four cities to find everything, with a pair of rollerblades for an eleven year-old girl as the most challenging part.
On January 7th, Mike, Dace, Meghan, Phil, and I set out for the children’s home, with 100 gifts in our two cars! Due to the corona pandemic, we were not allowed to hand over the gifts directly to the kids and teenagers, but that is not important. What is important, is that two dedicated employees, who spent their days working in the children’s home on Christmas, took and handed over the gifts, and knowing that we were able to bring some wonderful Christmas moments safely to these kids and teenagers in times of the pandemic is a feeling that is hard to beat!
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Copyright © 2019-2023 by Giving Getaway
Copyright © 2019-2022 by Giving Getaway
