Vesna feeds hungry in Belgrade: "Some don't eat for 3 days, single moms, sick kids also go hungry"

Photo: Shutterstock, Hrana za osmeh Beograda

"There are very much so hungry people in Belgrade. These are people who are old, sick, they are single mothers with sick children, sick women," says Vesna Zivkovic, one of the founders of the group "Hrana za Osmeh Beograda." One cannot remain indifferent after these words and not wonder how little time we spend thinking about the fact that there are those in the capital who have not eaten anything for days.

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Going hungry is for individuals, and even for entire families, sometimes an everyday occurrence they must face. And if there weren't for the humane people gathered around "Food for the Smile of Belgrade" they would have nothing to eat probably for days, and maybe even weeks. This is a group that has developed a network of food donors for its users, those who are sick, left without any income or unable to work.

"Our group helps the socially vulnerable. These are single parents who cannot work because they have sick children, or do work, but pay the rent and their wages cannot cover all expenses. Beneficiaries also include sick women who have submitted a request for a disability pension, but that takes a while, and they have minor children... If it weren't for us, those women and their children would be starving," Vesna Zivkovic told Telegraf.rs.

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Our interlocutor said that they currently serve about 50 families, including some with four members. Vesna lists only some of the difficult cases she has encountered in the previous period.

"We had a user who did not work and has two sick sons: the younger one, a 5-year-old, suffers from epilepsy, and the older one has asthma. After a while, she started working, and now has donated a package of food for someone else who needs it, just as someone had given it to her family before," says Vesna.

Most are elderly and sick

She stresses that, nevertheless, most of them are the elderly and sick who have no income.

"I found one grandma looking for food in the garbage. When I brought her food, she said modestly, 'Half a bag is enough for me'. I gave her two. And since then we have been constantly bringing her food, she thanks us and says, 'I am no longer hungry thanks of you'," Vesna tells us.

She says there had been those who had not eaten for three whole days.

Photo: Facebook/Hrana za osmeh Beograda

"An older man, alone, sick... He was starving for three days, until I took him a package of food," says Vesna and adds:

"There are also those who go hungry because they pay other people's debts. A woman who lives in inhumane conditions in Grocka has a job, but provided collateral to a person she shouldn't have, and now she is paying other people's debts, which amounts to half her monthly wages."

How it all works

Our interlocutor says that this group was founded by four people: herself, Darko Vucicevic, Milena Jovanovic and Mirjana Zigic. Their group does not take donations in the form of money, but only in food.

"We have two, three associates, but that is constantly changing. We need people willing to help, participate in distributing food to the users. We never take money, because this work of ours would lose its value. Each of us has their own job independently of this, and we pay for the gas for the car ourselves," says Vesna Zivkovic.

She adds that they received help from the owner of a delivery company, who gave them a storage chamber where they can keep food before delivering it to users.

In addition to associates, the "Food for the Smile of Belgrade" group also needs donors. Vesna made an appeal on people to help the hungry because there are so many of them in Belgrade.

Hunger at the time of corona

According to her, their work did not stop during the coronavirus epidemic. What has changed is that since the beginning of the epidemic, there are more and more people who have nothing to eat.

"The number of people who need help has increased. Of course, we also deliver food to those who are infected. It happened that during one day, during the time of corona, I'd delivered 20, 30 packages of food myself. I was falling off my feet," says our interlocutor.

When asked how she manages to do everything, se says, "Who wants to, finds a way" and cites as an example humane people from America and Canada who ordered food online and paid for it, to be delivered to those who need it the most in Belgrade.

"These people are waiting for us. If it weren't for us, they wouldn't have anything to eat," concluded Vesna Zivkovic.

(D. Simic)