How to Help the Elderly and the Refugees

B92

17 October 2005

The project to bring together elderly and refugee population in Serbia was presented in Belgrade today.

Fields of Vojvodina prepared for refugee families that want to work on them.

Milka Babic, the Representative of the Population Office, said that the families of senior citizens in Vojvodina are prepared to accept refugee families living in collective centres in their households, under certain conditions that are to be defined later.

Babic announced that the project will be implemented in cooperation with local self-governments and the Executive Council of Vojvodina. She added that the Vojvodina Executive Council is prepared to offer agricultural loans and credits to families that accept refugees.

The survey conducted by the Centre of Political Study and Public Opinion at the Institute of Social Sciences, as well as another survey conducted by Strategic Marketing Agency, show that 18 percent of elderly families in Vojvodina are prepared to accept refugees, while almost a half of the polled sample supported the idea.

At the same time, 21 percent of polled refugees said that they were prepared to move from the collective centres to the countryside and work on the land.