On this warm and sunny day, with crowded cafés and patios, and streets and quays teeming with pedestrians, it’s hard to imagine that the country is in a state of emergency.
In fact, it is.
During the past few days, Serbia has been struggling with the
biggest floods in recorded history. People who live in the central and western
parts of the country have suffered the most. Due to enormous and unusual
amounts of rainfall for this time of the year, rivers Sava
and Kolubara have gone out of their beds and flooded most of the towns they
flow through. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated
from their homes, while dozens perished.
Neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia are suffering the same disaster,
with the north-eastern and eastern areas, respectively, being the most
critical.
An estimated 2 million people in the Balkans have been
affected by the floods, but the damage caused by overflowing water has yet to
be determined.
The moment the situation had become alarming, the
people of Serbia
rushed to help those in need. They organized labor actions (radne akcije), which included building
dams along rivers and assisting evacuations; established funds to collect money
for the endangered people; and donated food, water, clothes, medical equipment,
medication...
Of crucial importance was, perhaps, the response of
the Serbian youth. Thousands of young people have been
mobilized by the Serbian government and the Red Cross to help in the relief
efforts. Volunteers were allocated across various evacuation
centers established in sport centers, arenas, faculty halls and hotels in
Belgrade and other cities, sometimes even outnumbering the evacuees.
Companies, supermarket chains and shops, associations,
famous and wealthy people joined the action by supplying these centers with food,
water and other necessities or making money donations for subsequent recovery
and repairs. The help from abroad is also noteworthy. The European Union, the
United Nations and individual countries and organizations have joined the
relief and recovery efforts. Most overwhelming and heartfelt were the help and
support from former Yugoslav republics, who were among the first to provide
man-power and truckloads of food and water.
(Skopje, Macedonia)
Last but not least, radio-amateurs and
social network users had a pivotal role in rescue missions, reportedly having saved
over a thousand lives. They worked through day and night, linking boat rescue
teams to stranded people and distributing information and updates on flooded
areas and missing people.
ESN BelUPgrade is currently organizing a fundraising
event which is to take place by the end of the month. In the meantime, our
members have been volunteering at
evacuation and donation centers.
Thus, we end this week’s post with a genuine testimony from
a fellow “BelUPgradian” who has been actively volunteering over the last week.
“Being
a volunteer who helps people in need can’t really be described as nice or
wonderful, but I can say that I’m glad I am able to help with what I can. Of
course just like the rest of the people, I wish my help or any other help wasn’t
needed, and that none of this has ever happened. However, we can’t live on
wishes and hopes. We need to be united, because that’s the only way our help
can be provided, and I’m glad that’s the case. For the past few days I have
been volunteering at one of the collection centers, where we were sorting out
goods, packing them and organizing delivery. After a long day, when I get home,
I feel tired, but I choose not to think about that. I choose to think about how
happy some kid will be when he/she sees the new toy we packed for him/her. Volunteering are people of different age and profession, but
most of them are students, just like me. We choose not to think about the
upcoming exam period, constantly repeating to ourselves that there are worse
things that happened to some people. I must mention my greatest moment, which made
me burst into tears. One elderly woman came and asked what we need most, to
which we replied we needed hygienic goods. Fifteen minutes later she returned carrying two plastic bags of old perfumed and
very expensive soap bars. She said that those soaps were a memory of her
husband, but that there were people who needed it more than her. It is because
of those people I am always ready to help. I would also like to use the
opportunity to ask everyone who can help, in any way, to do so. One box of
cookies, wet wipes, or anything else is not little. It means the world to them.“
(Co-written by Jovana Ružić and Uroš Jovanović)
