Background

The Action aims to address the lack of adequate support to children and their families during COVID-19 crisis, both in terms of support through financial assistance, as well as community based social services. This problem was extremely emphasized in the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, it happened in a number of LSGs that the community based social services have not been available to the citizens at all, while at the same time the financing of those services did not stopped. This has left vulnerable children and their families to deal with the challenges during COVID-19 crisis on their own.

Civil society organizations (CSO) and local self-governments (LSG) need empowerment and support, especially in dealing with crisis situation, in order to be able to solve problems more effectively and improve the quality of available services. The Action will create evidence around this issue, build capacity among CSOs and LSGs and promote the solutions and good practices which could be used in similar emergency situations.

Objectives

1. Combat social exclusion and discrimination, and promote social justice and protection of the rights of the child as per Article 3(3) of the Treaty of the EU, focusing on the families with children.
2. Raise awareness of the importance of human rights in responses to the COVID-19 crisis and similar emergency situations, with the focus on the families with children.

Activities

Through the proposed activities, the Action will lead to protection of social, economic and cultural rights of the families with children (children living in poverty, children with disabilities and Roma children) affected by economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The target groups of the Project are:

1. CSOs dealing with issues of families with children, who will be strengthened through increased evidence and advocacy skills;
2. Decision makers at the local level, who will benefit from this Project with raised competencies and capacities to support families with children in need in the most efficient manner.

The Project will be implemented through the implementation of several activities:

• Research on the position of the families with children during COVID-19 crisis;
• Collecting the evidences of challenges and good practices in regards to the access to rights and services for families with children during COVID-19 crisis;
• Peer Reviews with CSOs;
• Training of Trainers for relevant CSOs on accessing the rights and services of families with children in similar emergency situations;
• Regional/county presentation (in the 2 counties in Serbia).

Documents

• Analysis of the Status of Families With Children During the Covid-19 Crisis in the Republic of Serbia (.pdf)
• Analysis of the Position of Families with Children During the COVID-19 Crisis in Serbia - working draft document (.pdf)

News

• Successful Completion of the “Support to Families With Children in Crisis Situations” Project
• Publication “Analysis of the Status of Families with Children During the Covid-19 Crisis in the Republic of Serbia” Published
• Collection of examples of good practices and challenges in regards to the access to rights and services for families with children during COVID-19 crisis is underway
• Research on Position of Families with Children During the COVID-19 Crisis Conducted
• New Project: Support to Families with Children in Crisis Situations

-------

Project is funded by Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Click here for more information.