Christmas packages for Vitina and Cernica -

On the second day of our happiest holiday, Christmas gift packages arrived in Vitina and Cernica, two of the three Serbian enclaves that our members visited for Christmas as part of this year’s “Smile for Kosovo” campaign. The packages, containing clothing, sweets, and supplies for remote learning, were gifts for children from Kosovo and Metohija, brightening their holidays together with students from Belgrade, Banja Luka, and the diaspora. We distributed 50 packages to schoolchildren from Vitina and Cernica, and over 150 packages were collected throughout the campaign. This year’s initiative aimed to bring joy to children growing up in enclaves, with only a few streets to move around and a childhood spent largely in isolation. Accustomed to limited movement, uncertainty, and lack of information, the fear of being separated from the rest of their country again outweighed the fear of the virus.

Distribution of Christmas gifts in Vitina

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our students were unable to visit their fellow Serbs and holy sites in Kosovo and Metohija. Therefore, this year the traditional humanitarian campaign by the Serbian Political Forum student organization from Belgrade – “Smile for Kosovo” – became a joint initiative with the Kosovo Pomoravlje Humanitarian Organization, the Values System Organization, the Students’ Association of Republika Srpska in Serbia, the Political Science Faculty Students’ Association from Banja Luka, Digital Serbia, and with support from the Organization of Serbian Students Abroad.

A boy from Binač, in the yard of a school that was stoned a few months ago

Distribution of Christmas gifts in Binča (remote department of Mladen Marković Elementary School from Vitina)

Donations for the campaign were collected online under the slogan “Share Joy – Heart to Heart with Serbia.” Gifts for children from Cernica, Vitina, and Goraždevac were distributed on the second and third days of Christmas by members of our organization on behalf of all participants.