Kosovo: “If There Are Young People, There Is A Future”

IOCC Launches School Assistance Program in Kosovo's Isolated Enclaves

March 18, 2008 - Belgrade, Serbia - International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) announces a new program to provide equipment and repairs to schools located in the most isolated enclaves of Kosovo. This program, worth $30,000, will include repairs and renovations to schools in Gorazdevac (Pec Municipality) and Banje (Srbica Municipality). New equipment, including computers, will be provided for a school in Velika Hoca (Orahovac Municipality), and science lab supplies will be provided for students in Suvo Grlo (Srbica Municipality).

IOCC Serbia Program Manager Nenad Prelevic says these villages are some of the poorest in Kosovo. "We chose to target schools because we believe that if you provide for the youth, families will have a greater incentive to stay in Kosovo," he said. "If there are young people, there is a future."

IOCC Serbia has been implementing community development and relief programs in Kosovo since 1993. This new project is designed to capitalize on IOCC's previous community development assistance in the region. Families returning to Kosovo from central Serbia were recently provided with household appliances and food supplies.
"The villagers are very brave, and after nine years of insecurity they are trying hard to live life as normally as possible," said Prelevic. "We have to show them that we are thinking of their future in Kosovo."

To help in providing assistance to families in Kosovo, call IOCC's donation hotline toll-free at 1-877-803-4622, make a gift on-line at www.iocc.org, or mail a check or money order payable to "IOCC" and write "Kosovo Assistance" in the memo line to: IOCC, P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, Md. 21263-0225.

IOCC, founded in 1992 as the official humanitarian aid agency of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), has implemented over $250 million in relief and development programs in 33 countries around the world.

Source: http://www.soc.org.au