Initiative in favour of Serbian children with difficult pathologies
The Order of Malta has more than 900 years of history of assistance to the poor, the weak and the sick. In Serbia the Embassy of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Belgrade, has promoted various humanitarian initiatives together with programmes of instruction and formation.
The parents and the medical staff, giving assistance to children carrying difficult pathologies that require special treatment or in need of surgery that requires significant and rare skills, have the possibility of informing the Embassy of the Order of Malta in Belgrade of their situation and their needs.
In 2015 the project undertaken by the Embassy under the name of “Make a WISH to the Sovereign Order of Malta”, financed with the successful Charity-Dinner held in the Principality of Monaco, has reached 1.500 children from the areas that were hardly striken by the floods in 2014.
The positive results have encouraged to repeat the same initiative in 2016 with a new “ Make a WISH to the Sovereign Order of Malta” destined to children and adults with phisical and mental disabilities.
The beneficiaries of the 2016 project live in two institutes : The children’s and youth Institute in Sremcica (near Belgrade), a public institute giving shelter to up to three hundred people of different ages, and the House for people with mental disabilities of the Monastery of the Orthodox Serbian Church “Holy Petka” in the village of Izvor, near Paracin (central Serbia) that can host up to ninety two females, also of different ages.
Wishes such as medical equipment for a faster and better diagnosis in Izvor, and large amounts of clothes in Sremcica and then to Izvor have thus become reality. Furthermore industrial washing and drying machines have been delivered to both Izvor and Sremcica, to improve the hygienic conditions. Izvor has also received a fully equipped ambulance while in Sremcica finally arrived the long awaited mini-bus, together with other minor wishes.
In 2017 the new project, encouraged by the highest Authorities of the Sovereign Order of Malta and the Government of the Republic of Serbia, will provide the surgical operations in private hospitals for the difficult medical cases that can’t be resolved in the country in a timely manner due to the long waiting lists in the public hospitals with the financial aid of the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta. The other cases will be taken care by a team of foreign doctors that will be sent to Belgrade for the purpose or, for cases of more complexity, the giving of medical care to the patiens in a foreign country.
The above mentioned cases should be priorly reported to the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Belgrade, with a detailed written description of the pathology, drawn by the medical staff (doctor or hospital) in charge of the case. ( Text preferably in English language).
