27. 05. 2020
In the Home for the Elderly „Grabovac “in Risan which was reconstrcted in 2008 by Help, 12 tablets have been distributed on Wednesday, while 10 tablets have been distributed in the Home for Children without Parental Care in Bijela.
Thanks to these tablets, users in these institutions will be able to have easier contact with their families and relatives, which was made difficult or impossible due to measures made against the spread of coronavirus.
Help’s donation which was funded by the German Government was welcomed with joy in both of these institutions.
The director of the Home for the Elderly “Grabovac” Srđan Dragomanović, told us that they had already planned to provide a certain number of tablets for their users earlier – but failed to do so until now due to lack of funds. A large number of about 300 elderly people who have been in quarantine since February 2 have found it difficult to communicate with their families in the past period, due to the measures made by the National Coordination Body (NCB) to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Some of them even have their closest relatives abroad.
The head of the social service said that tablets will be distributed in all departments tomorrow (along with tablets we also provided a keyboard), one tablet for each department, with which comes an internet card for six months with a package of 50 GB each. As they have told us, even though they have internet in the Home, the internet signal is not adequate everywhere so this will enable the users to have easier and faster communication with their loved ones.
As we were told, some users have smartphones of their own, but not most of them, and there is one computer in each department but these tablets will allow each of the users to have the privacy of their room while talking to family and friends.
In the Home for the Elderly „Grabovac” they have told us that the tablets will also serve other purposes, such as organizing quizzes and other similar activities. The quarantine measures are still in effect in this facility and it is assumed that the retirement home will be one of the last institutions to lift the corresponding measures.
The director of Children’s Home “Mladost” in Bijela, Vesna Zlatković, told us that the tablets will be used for several purposes in this institution also: for communication between children and the outside world, and for studying. The quarantine measures are still in effect in this institution, and there are currently 80 children in the Home.
A total of 75 tablets with the Internet packages for 6 months will be distributed in several Montenegrin institutions and public institutions for vulnerable categories of the population, including the Home for the Elderly „Grabovac“ in Risan and the Children’s Home „Mladost“ in Bijela, which we have visited today.
The rest of the tablets will be distributed in homes for the elderly in Bijelo Polje and Pljevlja, the Institution for Children with Special Needs „Komanski Most“ in Podgorica and the Directorate for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions in Spuž. In addition to tablets, all users will also receive monthly internet packages of 50 GB for six months.
This donation of tablets is a continuation of Help’s support to Montenegro in mitigating the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The distribution of 75 tablets for vulnerable populations is part of Help’s regional project “Supporting socio-economic stability in the western Balkans region 2019-2020” and is part of the second government support package worth EUR 46,645.
The following are photos from the tablet delivery. First from Children’s Home “Mladost” in Bijela:
After that, we visited the Home for the Elderly „Grabovac“ in Risan:
Help is implementing the Corona emergency assistance within the German government funded project: “Support to socio-economic stability in the Western Balkans region 2019-2020”.
