Ljubisa Jovasevic, Mayor of Kraljevo - Photo: SOS Archives
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Construction for the second SOS Children's Village in Serbia and Montenegro, which will provide 12 family houses for 84 children, can now get underway. Although heavy rain turned the premises into a muddy field, some 200 guests and friends of SOS Children's Villages attended last week's groundbreaking ceremony.
Former German soccer star and coach of Serbian soccer club Partisan Belgrade, Lothar Matthaeus, donated 102,000 Euro for the new project. Unfortunately, Matthaeus, the project's most prominent supporter, was unable to attend last week's ceremony. The Serbian Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Ljiljana Lucic, and the Mayor of Kraljevo, Ljubisa Jovasevic, laid the foundation stone.
Kraljevo is a small town in central Serbia where there is insufficient infrastructure to look after abandoned children. Construction work for the SOS Children's Village Kraljevo will begin in June 2003 and should be completed by late summer 2004. SOS Children's Villages has had a presence in the country for over 25 years. The first village at Novi Sad houses 156 children and includes a youth centre.