Jointly with the Zumtobel Group and our local partner Indigo, we have initiated our project "Education at the Centre". Our common goal is to accompany marginalized children through primary school and thus provide them with a solid foundation for their future education. For this purpose they come to our centre in Niš, the third largest city in Serbia. Zumtobel has set up a branch there, which the company also sees as an opportunity to take on the challenges in the region, i.e. to help people in need together with us.
"We are pleased to support the commitment of the H. Stepic CEE Charity, because the values of the association and the social values of our company overlap. It is important for us, especially at the Zumtobel Group locations, to contribute to a better quality of life locally. We support the people where we are active. With our new plant here in southern Serbia, we can make an active contribution to the common good in our role as an employer and as part of society. Together with the Charity, we are working to raise the local educational level and thus counteract a poverty factor in the region. It is important to us that our project can help shape the future of children and make a difference together," says Alfred Felder, CEO of the Zumtobel Group.
Among the more than 1.5 million Serbians living in poverty or below the poverty line are more than 150,000 children. Education and even compulsory schooling are often a backlog for them. The parents cannot support the children in doing their homework, as most of them have hardly enjoyed any education themselves. The children's dropping out of school and a similar fate to that of their parents is almost already programmed.
In our centre, numerous student volunteers are involved under the supervision of professional pedagogues in order to pave the way for our protégés into a life without poverty. The project ensures that they enroll in the first class and complete elementary school on time. The tutoring and learning lessons are tailored to the individual needs of the pupils and should enable them to learn without support. The constant contact with the school that the children attend ensures that they are regularly present in class and that possible weaknesses can be counteracted. The involvement of the parents completes our project.
"’Education at the Centre' makes it possible that fewer and fewer children in Niš drop out of school. This project gives especially to children from minority groups a chance for education and training and also for integration into the Serbian majority society: Poverty is often exclusive. The H. Stepic CEE Charity has already implemented so many successful projects in Belgrade and the north of Serbia, now they are also active in the south. I hope I can visit the centre soon to see with my own eyes what progress the children are making there. I am proud that the Charity continuously contributes to improving the situation of people and particularly children in need in my country," said Zoran Petrović, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Serbia.
We would like to thank the Zumtobel Group and Indigo for working with us to provide children with an education - which increases their chances of receiving a profession and basis for an independent life.
