While 3000 participants meet in Geneva for the first Global Refugee Forum to pledge measure to enhance the local integration of refugees, here in Serbia, we can already enjoy some of its results, disguised as the most delicious pizza.
Recently a business staffed entirely by refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced people opened in downtown Belgrade.
Laganizza – meaning Take it Easy – started serving pizza in the Cetinska quarter of the Serbian capital. Business is brisk.
“It opens at lunch time, which is great as I work just around the corner,” said Ivan, a diner.
In the spirit of the Global Compact for Refugees, Pizza Laganizza is a truly multi-stakeholder success: conceived by the Balkan Centre for Migration, supported by the US Julia Taft Fund, while the German Organisation for International Cooperation (GIZ) trained the refugee chefs which were supported in their paperwork by the UN Refugee Agency and the Belgrade Center for Human Rights.
Given how busy it is already, pizza Laganizza should become profitable soon.
The head chef is Elham, who works with four other refugees, displaced persons and asylum-seekers. She arrived in Serbia together with her husband and two school-age sons last year, sought asylum, and has already learned Serbian.
“I’ve now got a pizza chef certificate. I am happy because I no longer depend on others to cover the needs of my family. The customers are very friendly,” she said.
Laganizza shows that Serbia remains a viable country for refugee integration.
And also for locals too busy to stop by Pizza Laganizza a solution is on its way: It will start home deliveries soon.
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