Aleksinac and Sabac, from December to March
At Sabac, a town near the borders with Bosnia and Croatia , where, in the 90s, more than 8,000 were the refugees , and where was then created one of the first shelters for refugees , was concluded the cycle of the initiative of the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Belgrade ” a hot meal on a cold winter”. The first day was held on the occasion of the Holy Catholic Christmas: hosted by the Order of Malta in the Parish of St. Anne, for the first time, for the people most in need of Sabac. Thanks to the collaboration of the local Caritas, and in particular its Director in Sabac Miroljub Nikolić, the initiative has continued on December 30th at the Psychiatric Department of the local hospital, where are housed people with disabilities of the area. Subsequently, special attention has been given to refugees and then, during recent weeks, the initiative continued at different locations where, particularly pressing, is the need for these kinds of measures of human and social solidarity. The last day of the initiative “hot meals”, which started in December until March 8th, was hosted in its last day at the headquarters of the Sabac Caritas in and sparked the joy of all its guests.
May we remember that on the first day, in the other host city of the initiative, Aleksinac ,were present HE Msgr. Stanislav Hocevar, the Orthodox Deacon Nenad Popovic , the Order’s Ambassador Alberto di Luca , the Mayor of Aleksinac , Nenad Stankovic , the Director of the local hospital , Dr. Dragan Stamenkovic , Ms. Bratislava Stojkovic , coordinator of Social Affairs at the Center for Social Work of Aleksinac and the Director of the Serbian Caritas Miloje Veljic .
On the final day in Sabac, in addition to its Caritas Director Miroljub Nikolić, for the administration of the City intervened Milos Stanojčić , Head of City Administration. The local TV stations have not failed to ask Ambassador di Luca if the initiative will be repeated in the coming years. His words were those of “confirmation that these initiatives are the ones closest to our mission that we carry out in 120 countries around the world where we are present, so surely to be continued. What is not yet decided is whether the cities will still be Sabac and Aleksinac, or other cities in Serbia. ”
