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The Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, together with partners, donors, and individuals, has supported more than 50,000 citizens in Serbia in 2023 with funds worth 2.2 million dollars.
With various humanitarian and development projects, we supported students, families and agricultural households, civil society organizations, with a focus on empowering young people and women, along with educational and health institutions, and animal shelters.
Through our agricultural support progams and Divac agricultural funds, 95 agricultural households started or developed their own buriness and agricultural production, of which 36 young farmers were additionally supported through training and mentoring. In cooperation with 13 local self-goverments, assistance was provided in the form of domestic animals, seedlings, agricultural machinery or construction materials, as wewll as, donations of greenhouses.
In various actions that we implemented throughout Serbia we contributed to the preservation of the environment and the fulfillment of the Green Agenda. Through the action of organized collection of used pesticide packaging, more than 100 small farmers participated and over 300kg of waste was collected, by joining forces with the corporate sector, we improved the air quality planting 2000 trees in Zrenjanin.
In addition to this, thanks to our partners from the coprorate sector, 16 female entrepeneurs received grants for the development of self-employment and mentoring.
By reconstructing and equipping private and public facilities throughout Serbia, we have provided conditions for a better quality of life for citizens. Thanks to our individual donors, we reconstructed and furnished homes for 4 families, and with the additional support of our business partners, 4 educational institutions received new furniture. In 2023, we donated a water pump station for the JKP Vodovod to the residents of the municipalit of Vlasotince, and thus ensured water supply for the residents of surrounding villages.
More than 35,000 dollars were invested in the improvement of the health system. We supported innovative procedures and operations by donating new medical equipment for the Maxiofacial Surgery Clinic, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Belgrade, and we improved the stay of our oldest citizens in the Belgrade Geronotology Center by building a common space in the yard.
The foundation traditionally supports the most vulnerable families by donating basic foods and necessities, food packages, shoes, clothes, machinery for plumbing and firewood. During 2023, we helped 41 families, some of which are also families we supported from Kosovo, and we additionally helped 500 beneficiaries from Kuršumlija.
We also continues our monthly support to the Church Kitchen of the Religious Chartiable Trust of the SPC for the distribution of 2,000 meals a day, with the donation of funds for food production.
In cooperation with a group of donors from the USA, the IT Bootcamp program continued for the fifth year in a row - non-proft school for retraining in the IT sector, which was completed for free by the fifteenth generation, a total of 290 participants, and 32 precent of them found a job or internship in that sector.
In an effort to support young and hard-working students as much as possible, this year we also distributed scholarships to ourstanding students from materially disadvantaged families. In the course of 2023, as many as 250 Divac scholarship recipients regularly recieved a monthy scholarship of which 106 were awarded this year to high school students and students. Year by year, the number of donors and partners who support these hardworking, young people grows, and we hope that in the coming years the number will be even higher.
We continued the fight for gender equality, and supported young people to become more actively involved in the social, economic and political life of the country and the region, and promoted the goals of sustainable development and equality for all.
Through grants, capacity building and mentoring, we helped 88 civil society organizations and informal youth groups.
We comtinued our support for the empowerment of the vulnerable groups in 2023, by raising public awaremenss on the topic of economic empowerment and employment of people with disabilities, as well as through the cooperation with basketball players in wheelchairs of KK Crvena Zvezda - Singidunum.
We would like to express our gratitude for the immense support of our media partners, without whom our voice, calls to action and results would not have been heard. Once again, we showed that with joint efforts we can change the world for the better through 1700 announcements in 2023.
The Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation would like to thank all partners in the country and the diaspora, the media and donors for their trust and support in the past year. Thank you for being a part of the Divac team in 2023. We hope to continue and improve this wonderful cooperation in the coming year.