POLIS program, the Introductory Conference

On December 16^th, organized by the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, the “Introductory Conference of the Polis Program – Support to Local Infrastructure of Serbia” took place in Belgrade, Serbia.

State Secretary of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs Stana Božović opened the conference. The other respected spokesperson were: Christian Schilling, First Secretary and Head of International Development Cooperation of the Federal Republic of Germany in Serbia; Ridiger Hartmann, Director of the KfW Office in Serbia; Marko Blagojević, director of the Office for Public Investment Management and Gordan Velev, director of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund office for Serbia.

As part of the soft measures, computers were donated to the schools, Roma organizations and centers for social work in the municipalities where the Polis Program is implemented.

Gordan Velev, presented the soft component and the situation “on the field”:

“This is a very important project for ASB. In all 11 municipalities, we have achieved exceptional cooperation with local authorities and institutions, but above all with beneficiaries. The interest has been great from the very beginning, especially among school-age children who, due to the consequences of the COVID19 pandemic, have had lost the lessons and have difficulty following the school program. At the middle of the project duration, we have already achieved more than 80% of the planned results for the entire project, with over 7,000 individual visits to workshops from mid-May to the end of November. Out of a total of 900 planned workshops, as many as 721 were held by the end of November”.