In that building, up to 55 children live every day during their most difficult period – the adaptation to a regular life. They are relearning how to attend school, seeking health support, and adopting basic routines and habits. They look for a crumb of security, a speck of motivation, and new pillars that give them hope that tomorrow can be different. This beautiful building features huge windows, which have become the heart of this story.
Friends of Children of Serbia (PDS) are there as true friends to these children, but also to their "guardian angels" – the tireless educators, psychologists, social workers, special educators, cooks, and nurses. These are the people who work daily on the hardest task: changing the image of an "adult" in the eyes of these children, restoring their lost trust and dignity, step by step.
PDS provides psychosocial, professional, and material support to the Shelter. In this mission, the UniCredit Foundation has given its support to the project "Steps to Independence: Supporting Children in Institutional Care for Successful Education and Career".
In the constant effort to address needs that would make the children's path through schooling easier, a seemingly unusual request emerged. On sunny days, in the rooms where the children stay, the light is so intense and the sun's rays so persistent that the children, while trying to study, draw, or read, were forced to improvise in various ways just to see. While dreaming of big life changes, they also dreamed of something quite simple – good curtains. Whoever the management had turned to before, the answer was always the same: "That isn't important; there are more critical things."
But for Friends of Children of Serbia and the UniCredit Foundation, the curtains were important. Because we decided to do the most vital thing of all – to listen to the children.
And lo and behold – the children began to spend much more time studying and acquiring new skills. Because, finally, "the sun is no longer in their eyes." That small obstacle, the glare that distracted them, disappeared under the soft fabric that granted them peace.
What is the point of this story? Sometimes, for learning and motivation, we don’t just need iron will, expensive equipment, or the best mentors.
Sometimes, all that is needed is one unusual, human step.
Like curtains, for example.