The Union of Municipalities of Montenegro (ZOCG) has opened a special bank account for donations that will be used to provide additional support to young people without parental care after they leave the Children's Home in Bijela.
ZOCG announced that this would ensure the continuity of their project, which provides psychological and mentoring support for six young people who are leaving the Home this year, and in one case, resolving housing issues through rental accommodation.
It is stated that the 23 thousand euros that have been provided so far only provide such support for a few months, which is not enough.
The ZOCG said that the payment contributes to creating conditions to facilitate the process during which young people without parental care become independent, integrated, useful and satisfied members of society.
Secretary General of ZOCG Mišela Manojlović emphasized that with the project they launched, they intend to establish a sustainable support system for this target group.
She said that establishing a better quality system of care and support for children and young people without parental care, as a vulnerable social group, is a complex undertaking that requires a lot of time and effort.
"Starting from amending legal regulations, through the formation of new institutions and institutions, to developing social awareness so that the foster care model, or the raising of children without parents in foster families, becomes much more prevalent than it is now," said Manojlović.
She said that, until all of this is realized, they are doing what they can under the current circumstances to help young people who were not able to grow up in a family, but in an institution in Bijela, make the transition to independent living as painless as possible.
"That is precisely why we launched a donor campaign so that we would be able to implement measures aimed at satisfying not only their basic existential needs such as housing, education and employment, but also at providing psychological support, developing talents and strengthening social and other skills," said Manojlović.
The ZOCG stated that, within the framework of the implementation of the project "Social and existential inclusion of children and youth without parental care - connecting with local communities in Montenegro", two detailed documents were prepared in which this important social issue was analyzed from a legal and psychosocial perspective.
"The documents contain a whole set of measures that need to be taken, the implementation and promotion of which the ZOCG will work on in the coming period," the statement says.
Manojlović said that caring for young people without parental care must not stop with their release from the "Mladost" Children's Home in Bijela, but that that is when real, responsible and systematic work on their inclusion and empowerment must begin.
Bonus video:
