This past week we have met with an array of organization and political
leaders in Belgrade. We met with
Praxis, a refugee assistance organization in Serbia. They have mainly been working with the Roma population in
Serbia, who were displaced from their homes in Kosovo, as part of the
Kosovo-Serbian dispute. Many Roma
people in Serbia are now currently living in conditions that are considered
under the “minimal standard of living” and Praxis is working to help improve
their standard of living and gain legal documents in order to attain health
insurance and property rights. A couple of students from our group who are interest in pursuing a
career with refugees were able to visit one of the Roma refugee camps.
Marie, one of the students who went to visit the Roma Refugees was kind enough to share the photos with me so that you can gain a better understanding of why there is an organization focusing on helping the Roma people. Thank you Marie!
Marie, one of the students who went to visit the Roma Refugees was kind enough to share the photos with me so that you can gain a better understanding of why there is an organization focusing on helping the Roma people. Thank you Marie!
They literally live in these 'containers.'
Just as we had done in BiH we were able to visit with the
President’s Foreign Affairs advisor.
However, unlike last time we were not able to meet with the President of
Serbia. He was in the building
when we were there but left soon after we arrived (I promise we did not
smell). The Foreign Affair’s
advisor was surprisingly really young!
After our meeting our TA told us that the new government in Serbia (only
elected into office 2 months ago) has had difficulty with having educated
officials. The current President went from having his high school education to
his Ph.D in 3 years... and he was taped making speeches when he was supposed to
be in class…
The fancy room in the Presidents Building that our meeting was in.
The flag on the left is the EU flag (they are not a member yet but applying for membership, the center flag is the Serbian flag, and the flag on the right is the Presidents flag (specific to this president).
The Foreign Affairs advisor on the right and his and his assistant, left.
Allie and I!
We also met with the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, a think
tank that focuses on different aspects of Security in and outside of
Serbia. Different employees had
different areas of study ranging from gender roles in Security to the role of
NATO. They also act as a check
system to corruption in Serbia’s security forces. However, it was disappointing to find out that they have no
real pull other than letting the public know when there is corruption within
the government’s security forces.
After the meeting we were able to get lunch with the Serbian interns at
the organization, which led to some really engaging conversations about what
they were researching themselves.
A church near the BCSP.
The hotel that we are staying in Belgrade was kind enough to give
us a discount price on laundry services.
Each room was allowed one bag of laundry for $5! My roommate Allie and I put together a
bag and I brought it down to the front desk. I told her our room number and handed her the bag and she
said “Just a wash right?” and I made a funny face and she noticed and said “of
course a dry too” and I was like “okay good!” and be both had a little
chuckle. The next afternoon I came
home to Allie hanging up every single item that we had asked them to wash. They were all wet. She found them neatly folded in a pile
on a bag on the floor. So
strange. We then asked our Serbian
TA if this was normal and asked around if other people got their clothes back
wet and nope. They all had dry clothes when they got them back. We are still dumbfounded as to why this
happened! Luckily, I bought camping "laundry line" rope before I left for when I had to hand wash clothes.
End product of our solution to wet clothes...
Our friend Ian stopped in later to see what we were up to... He was a little shocked.
