BCSDN’s members Civic Initiatives (CI) and Center for Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD) have been actively engaged in helping people from Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina who are struggling with heavy floods causing enormous damage across the countries for several days already.
CI established a crisis unit in Belgrade that will be on disposal to all civil society organisations for activities aimed to provide aid to the endangered Serbian citizens. The Unit contacts various international civil society networks, as well as potential donors, in order to raise aid for the Serbian citizens. At the time being, aid is gathered and distributed to the affected areas, while support activities to be implemented after the floods retreat are concurrently being planned and prepared. Facebook and Twitter accounts “Citizens United for Serbia” are opened and the twitter hashtag #udruzeni provides constant feed of news and latest information about the crisis situation in Serbia.
In B&H, CPCD, through a growing network of volunteers from organizations, companies and media, has been continuously sending trucks full of necessary products such as food, water, medication, hygiene products, blankets, baby packages, clothes etc. to fulfil the urgent needs of people in distress from Maglaj, Doboj, Olovo, Janja, Žepče, Zvornik and many other affected areas in B&H.
These are the heaviest rains and floods that have hit B&H and Serbia in 120 years, leaving numerous towns all over the countries completely flooded and devastated, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people and causing number of casualties.