Sremcica and Izvor, December 27 and 28

Just in time before the Orthodox Christmas, in the last week of December, a significant quantity of day/night clothes has been delivered to the institutions in Sremcica and Izvor thanks to the Italian donator “Original Marines” (www.originalmarines.com ).
With this event the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta has ended numerous activities held in 2016 with the scope to give a helping hand to 300 protégés of The Youth Center for Disabled People in Sremcica conducted by Mrs. Aleksandra Trifkovic as well as to 90 girls of St. Petka Center for the girls with mental difficulties, placed in the picturesque setting of the 14th century monastery “St. Petka”, under the supervision of Orthodox nuns led by the weariless Mother Glikerija.

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In the course of 2016, the two of them, together with their associates, have been devoted and responsible for sending the prior WISHES and needs of the protégés in these two institutions to the Embassy. Sometimes these wishes were related to the technical devices and sometimes to the “dreams”. At the beginning of this year, the necessary medical equipment has been delivered to the institution in Izvor which help them to monitor health conditions of the girls in a better way. To the institution in Sremcica we delivered a new washing machine and a dryer to improve hygienic conditions of their protégés. The urgent need of the industrial washing machine and dryer at the institution in Izvor has been satisfied thanks to the cooperation of the Global fund for forgotten people instituted by The Sovereign Order of Malta in 2011. (www.forgottenpeople.org ).
Subsequently, products for home and personal hygiene were delivered to the institution in Izvor as well as the first important delivery of Italian clothes “Original Marines”.
The institution in Izvor has expressed the need for their own ambulance car for urgent medical services not having to depend on the one and only ambulance car of the hospital 30 km away from the institution. Thus, completely equipped ambulance car was delivered to them in October. Not a single person in the institution in Izvor thought of the possibility of the WISH being realized but it came true!

The center of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Monastery “St. Petka“, in the village of Izvor with the snow, which houses 92 girls with mental disabilities.

Finally, the protégés in Sremcica wished for minibus which would make them connected to the outside world, help them follow educational courses and enable them to participate at social and cultural events. At the beginning of December, thanks to the generous contribution of the Taiwanese Government, the Taiwan representative in Hungary Ambassador Wen-lung Tao has arrived purposely to Sremcica together with the Ambassador Alberto di Luca to honor the delivery of the long-awaited minibus of their dreams which brought happiness to the protégés and their educators.
The last act of the “Make a WISH 2016” project has been the delivery of clothes donated by “Original Marines”.
And what about the year 2017?
Very ambitious project awaits parents and doctors of children with severe diagnoses, in need of specific and complex interventions, to express their problems and needs to the Embassy of Order of Malta in Belgrade during the upcoming year.
The Embassy will try to arrange the arrival of medical experts from other countries or, in extreme cases, to provide transportation and surgical intervention of young patients to other countries with appropriate sanitary and financial conditions.
In these cases it would be necessary to present written and detailed medical report of diseased kid issued by his/her doctor or the medical institution in Serbia where they have been treated by the specialists up till now (reports to be preferably in English).
This is our great ambition for Make a WISH 2017 which unites Embassy in Belgrade – diplomats, associates and volunteers – with the Order of Malta worldwide and the generous donators from Italy, Monaco and Taiwan who supported our projects in 2015 and 2016 showing fraternal readiness to give assistance. We are sending them the best New Year wishes for peace and serenity of the great happiness from the millennium old but still young mission of the Order of Malta.