Name of organization: Paraplegics Association, Pljevlja
Project title: Join us – let’s help each other
Amount granted: € 14,060.00

The Paraplegics Association’s committed activities work hard to introduce and improve social and health care services for the disabled in the community of Pljevlja, a small town near the Montenegrin border with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mira, Zada and Desa are three brave women who are the driving force behind the organization, and the leaders of the project supported by CNF.

The project enables members to get counseling service provided by the lawyer, a medical doctor and a psychologist. They also organize creative workshops and knew that the best way to bring new people in, was to pay home visits to a number of persons with disabilities in their community.

The project has raised a lot of interest, led to a significant increase in Paraplegic Association’s membership, and contributed to “more people getting out of their homes”, as Zada Vlahovljak puts it. She and the others could not believe that people would be that interested in psychological counseling.

Zada became a member in 2005. Before, she lived a quite isolated life. As a teenager she loved poetry and wrote poems, too; but the family, being poor, could not afford to have her continue her studies.

The contacts through the association have given her life a different direction. Now, whenever and wherever she sees a disabled person she approaches him or her and tries to ‘get them to their feet’. “The bonds among all of the members are much stronger now, and more people are active now, which is great!” she says.