Human interest stories

This October, Kathia, Sebtimio, Sami and Reza will enter the classrooms of faculties in Belgrade, on a pursuit of their dreams. A big step in anyone’s lifetime, for them it is at least one size bigger – coming after many actual steps they made on their way to finding...

Considering that studying a language is inseparable from learning about the culture of the host country, conversation classes are sometimes organized outside the classroom For Firash, 17, and Asadi, 18, who fled Afghanistan more than a year ago, learning Serbian is...

A peer-taught programme in Serbia is helping vulnerable unaccompanied children protect themselves from violence and exploitation as they seek safety. Arsalan* knows about the risks of violence and exploitation firsthand. Armed groups used to barge into the shop where...

Serbia is including refugees and asylum-seekers in its national vaccination rollout, with support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency Serbia has commenced COVID-19 vaccinations for refugees and asylum seekers. On Friday, 53 people at an asylum centre near the capital,...

Young UN Volunteers Silvija, Kristina and Meti do their part in assisting their community to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic. Although with different educational background (music, medicine and literature) all three are members of the UN Volunteers cohort in Serbia with the mission of being link between the Roma community and governmental institutions.

“When they called to tell me that I had been issued documents, I was so happy that I burst into tears! People around me thought I didn’t feel well – that excited and full of joy was I.” Life has rarely been easy for Djuljana (27). At the tender age of seven, she...

Language learning has played a big role in Afsaneh’s life. As an Iranian, she grew up speaking Farsi. As an adult, she became an English teacher, and on arrival in Belgrade as a refugee in 2018 she started learning Serbian. Now she is putting her language skills to...

“Stefan is the Serbian name that I adopted, and everyone now calls me by it, even my friends who came here as refugees” says Dilsad* with a twinkle in his eye and in fluent Serbian. Talking to this teenager whose smile never seems to leave his face, one would hardly...

Spring arrived and the woods we are approaching appear in bloom. It is only when we stop – a lake and a park on the one side of the road and woods on the other – that we see that these woods are dotted with cardboard and plywood houses, buzzing with...