17.02.2020
Representatives of the Montenegrin Government, Deputy Prime Minister Milutin Simovic and Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Kemal Purisic, Deputy German Ambassador Christoph Breunig, Mayor of Danilovgrad Zorica Kovacevic and Help coordinator Klaus Mock visited today the social housing apartments in Spuz. The beneficiaries and youth who resided in Bijela were able to move into these apartments at the end of December 2019.
Help, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare as well as the municipality of Danilovgrad participated in the construction and equipping of 12 apartments in the building in Spuz owned by the Danilovgrad municipality.
The Deputy Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milutin Simovic, said that 33 children’s smiles that welcomed guests today in Spuz are the best confirmation that these are worthwhile projects. This, the Minister says, confirms that the majority of Montenegro’s energy is preoccupied with work and commitment.
“Our meeting today and the satisfaction of these families with their new home is a good opportunity for us to announce and remind ourselves together of solidarity, understanding, recognition and partnership: solidarity as a special value that we need to develop and show at every moment and every place; understanding that we understand the child, the man and the family and anyone who needs help and support; recognition so that we may recognize the distress of another without waiting for a formal request for help and partnership as the best possible response in creating and realizing support.”
The Deputy Head of the Mission of the German Embassy in Montenegro, Christoph Breunig, stated that Germany has been committed to social housing in the region and Montenegro for years. The German Government has invested half of the total construction costs for the project in Spuz.
“Affordable housing is one of the foundations of a functioning society. This is part of Germany’s participation in a regional social housing project for which 9 million Euro have been allocated so far. We are also ready to continue investing in this project by the end of 2022. But we cannot do this alone, which is why we are cooperating for implementation with an organization such as Help, and also with our partners in Montenegro, such as local authorities and the Government. This is a very good example of how working together can lead to great results. I hope the tenants are happy here and that they feel at home. I can only encourage them to take care of their homes.“
Help contributed 106,808 Euro from the German government funds for the cost of constructing 12 apartments and rebuilding of the facade of the building, totaling 172,291 Euro. The apartments are built on an existing building owned by the municipality. The municipality of Danilovgrad co-financed the works with 62,008 Euro, while the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare provided 32,008 Euro for two apartments for children who had to leave the Care Center for children in Bijela. The total value of the project component in Danilovgrad is 207,324 Euro.
The Mayor of Danilovgrad Zorica Kovacevic, emphasized that the project was completed in a very short time.
“We, from the local government, are extremely happy to have made all these families and their children happy. There are 33 children here, we have a foster family and many children with special needs. It was our obligation from the local government to do everything in a transparent and fair way. The business of building apartments was very demanding, but thanks to Eurozox and Help and our local government, today we are convinced that everything is done well and that we were able to distribute all these apartments in a fair and transparent way without any complaint from people we found in the apartments.”
One of the tenants, Mrs. Vojka Vukovic, the mother of the foster family, was thankfull on behalf of everyone who had received the apartments to everyone who contributed to their entry into the homes.
“Thanks to everyone for understanding our needs and giving us apartments that are much more adequate to live in than the previous rooms, which were very uncomfortable, some too humid, the ceilings falling and the houses sometimes burning. Your teamwork has put your promises and words into action. An old truth tells us to be a brother to the afflicted, to open his heart and to give him his hand. You did exactly this and thank you very much for that. We will do our best to keep our apartments decent so that our children can enjoy them, ”said Mrs. Vukovic, who then addressed the German Government with a few words in German, which made it’s contribution through the Help organization.
Vojka Vukovic and her children, whom she was raising had distributed gifts to the Government, Ministers Simovic and Purisic, the German Embassy, the Municipality of Danilovgrad, the Center for Social Work and Help.
The Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Kemal Purišić, emphasized that this was a great opportunity today for all of us to be convinced that a good thing had been done, that through partnership with the German Government, the non-governmental organization Help, the Municipality of Danilovgrad and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare 12 families were made happy.
“Out of these 12 families, ten are beneficiaries of social assistance. Housing is a prerequisite for elementary existence and integration into the local community. We have helped with local partners to make this happen. When we toured the family homes today, we convinced the users of social housing that the selection was made fairly and that families who were truly in social need were given housing. In addition, as part of this project, we have prepared and renovated two apartments for the housing of youth without parental care, who used the services of the orpghanage home in Bijela, but after coming of age have had to leave the home. Since these young people find themselves in a new situation without the support of the experts who were supporting them in growing up, it is with this type of social service – housing with the support of social work centers that we provide them with this new form of support. For now, there is a girl from here who is originally from Danilovgrad and who will have all the support of the Danilovgrad Social Work Center, not only for housing but also all other ways to integrate into the community. We are working together with Help to provide Milica Brajovic with employment support in order to complete the support system and to provide Milica with a new life and society. It’s a very nice story, and we’ll have another beneficiary soon. ”
The total value of this project for 2019-2020 is 3.590.051 Euro, while the value of the part of the project in Montenegro is 686.510 Euro. It is part of Help’s regional project “Support to socio-economic stability in the Western Balkans region 2019-2020” that is funded by the German government.
Biljana Jovićević
