A place for feeding and changing the babies, clothing and shoes, stuffed animals, colouring books and crayons are just some of the items that the child-friendly space offers to children and mothers with babies, located in Adaševci, a Serbian town near the Croatian border. The child-friendly space was set up by the international NGO World Vision and by UNICEF, with financial support from the European Union.
Children and mothers, especially those with new-borns, are particularly vulnerable groups of refugees and migrants and they need extra support. In this safe space, children can relax and rest with educational and recreational activities facilitated by World Vision staff where mothers are able to obtain information and advice on nutrition for their children, hygiene and safety.
Every day thousands of refugees cross into Serbia, and several hundred of them wait up to 18 hours for the train to Croatia. The child-friendly space provides security and a place to rest for over 200 people including mothers with babies and young children each day; mothers are able to feed and change their babies and children can rest and sleep before continuing arduous journey.
“It is amazing feeling when you can help and enable a mother to feed and change her baby and to give a child a place to rest, play and relax. We had a case of a mother who was nine-months pregnant and we helped her to successfully give birth in a nearby hospital. All of this makes our work unique because we help the children, mothers and families in general in this difficult situation. When you see a child who, after three weeks spent on a journey, plays, laughs and smiles again that’s what fills and inspires us to work even harder making their lives a bit easier, “said Weihui Wang, head of the program for the protection of children in the organization World Vision.
“Children are physically exhausted due to long journeys and are psychologically traumatized; many of them have accumulated stress because of what they survived in their countries and on their way to Western Europe. The child-friendly space is a haven for these children where they can rest and receive the necessary support, and again feel like children. It allows privacy to mothers so they can freely change clothes and feed their babies and rest, “says Michel Saint-Lot, UNICEF Representative in Serbia.
“The EU is making a vital contribution in Serbia to protecting the most vulnerable amongst the refugees and migrants,” explains Samy Cecchin, field expert of the European Commission’s humanitarian aid office in Serbia. “Together with its partners, the EU can demonstrate the compassion of the European people for the plight of the victims of conflict and depravation who are seeking refuge in Europe.”
The child-friendly space in Adaševci will be open until further notice. Should the border crossing be relocated, it will be moved to the place where it would be most needed.
