IPPNW-Students Serbia-Montenegro

Refugee Children in Collective Settlement Cortanovci

Psychosocial and Health Empowerment of Refugee Children in Collective Settlement Cortanovci

In Vojvodina, the northern region of Yugoslavia, there are more than 5.000 refugees in 94 collective settlements. Cortanovci, situated near Novi Sad, is one of them, and is known for its extremely difficult material and housing conditions. The settlement is isolated, three kilometers away from the village and is almost inaccessible during wintertime. Structured mostly of the people who left Croatia in the period from 1992 – 1995 (280 persons, 40 of whom are children and adolescents), population is old, with different health problems, presence of abuses and a low level of tolerance.

Today, almost ten years after the war in Croatia started, we are witnessing the generation of children who have been fully raised, some of them even born, in refugee camps, in ghettoized, lonely and left-from-the-whole-world atmosphere. Drug and alcohol abuse are very common both in young and elderly population. People often indulge in quarrel and violence as they live in confined space, with no privacy, which all leads to abusive behavior towards children. The impact on psychological health of the children is obvious - children and adolescents have no possibility to spend their free time adequately, or to learn socially accepted models of behaviour in such surroundings. A question of their better physical health care has also been raised. The project Psychosocial and Health Empowerment of the Refugee Children in Cortanovci comprises both of these aspects.

This is a joint project of YuMSIC-SCORP Novi Sad, Physicians for Peace (IPPNW affiliate Serbia) and Center for Psychosocial Support SRCE. It started in September 2001, and involves 30 students of medicine and dentistry and several young doctors. Members of SRCE who are professional psychiatrists, psychologists and pediatricians provide supervision and training. The idea comes from a very successful project Friendship Clubs, carried out also by YuMSIC, the first of its kind among students of medicine in our country.

The goals of the project are to monitor and evaluate the health conditions of children and adolescents, to provide psychosocial support - to help the refugee children to overcome the trauma they suffered and to help their integration in the local community, through the series of lectures, talks and activities, and to improve health and mental hygiene in the settlement through education.

Workshops are the central activity of the psychosocial empowerment program. Before they started, the parents were interviewed in order to get to know both the children and their families better. It provided valuable information. Surprisingly, it was found that most of the children were excellent students and their parents down-to-earth people, conscious of their children's bad luck and struggling to provide for a better living. On the other hand, cases of neglected and abused children were also recorded, as well as the cases of PTSD, nocturnal enuresis and concentration disorders.

Children are divided into four age groups: 4-7, 7-11, 11-15 and 15-18 years. Workshops are led by two students and held once in two weeks for each group. They deal with behavior, hygiene, social rules, tolerance, motivation, drug and alcohol abuse, sexually transmissive diseases, etc. Trainings for the students are held by the project supervisor Ph D Slavica Selakovic, professor of psychiatry, Dusanka Djurovic and Sandra Rudic, psychologists.

Apart from the workshops, two young doctors perform physical examinations of the children. Every child has its own record, which enables long-term evaluation of its health state. A non-vaccinated baby was detected, transported to the Pediatrics Clinic in Novi Sad and vaccinated. Ph D Dobrila Radovanov, pediatrician, supervises physical examinations.

In December a campaign of collecting books for the children's library began. By the end of the month around 220 books, donated by the students and physicians, had been collected at the Medical Faculty. The plan is to extend the campaign over the whole University in spring and try to motivate the students of other faculties to join in the humanitarian activities.

The New Year celebration in Cortanovci was a great success. The activity was carried out together with SCORA Novi Sad. The preparations began in December when at two traditional Sweet Parties a huge amount of sweets was collected.

With the donation from the local dairy in 400 juice packs, it was enough to make New Year presents for all the children in the settlement. Books and invitations for the New Year parties were provided for the adolescents. 12 SCORP and SCORA members prepared an excellent performance with Santa Claus and a Christmas tree. All members took part in this event, which was an absolute success of teamwork and enthusiasm. The delighted faces of children confirmed it, and that was the best sign that we were doing well. For some of them, it was the first time they had seen any theatre play.

The first phase of the project will end in September 2002, when it is planned to proceed with the same activities in other camps. Of course, we will go on with the work in Cortanovci, since the main idea is to keep on the continuous work, especially workshops. This requires continuous education of the activists as well. Team building, burnout, child abuse and professional seminars, visiting camps where similar programs already exist are certain to be held regularly. Still, we need more time to evaluate the results of our work, but the feedback we get from the children is the best sign that we do it the right way.

Predrag Rasovic, LORP, SCORP Novi Sad
Aleksandar Jesic, SCORP YuMSIC Novi Sad
Stanislava Macura, IPPNW European Student Representative 2001/2002, Physicians for Peace, Novi Sad