Safe House in Vranje officially opens

Safe House in Vranje officially opens

The Safe House in Vranje will cover the entire District of Pcinje, including the municipalities of Trgoviste, Surdulica, Bujanovac, Presevo, Vladicin Han and Bosilegrad. The whole object is about 300 sq meters and its capacity is designed to accommodate up to 25 persons. It is composed of 8 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a dining room, office space, a laundry room and four sanitary facilities.

It is secured with video surveillance that covers complete space around the house. The United States European Command (EUCOM), via its Office of Defense Cooperation of the U.S. Embassy invested USD 213,000 in constructing this object. Construction works were launched back in August 2014, and were conducted under the close monitoring of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The object was designed and built by the Company Noveco based in Vranje. This project was conducted in partnership with the B92 Fund as a part of national campaign launched with the aim of raising awareness in public on the issue of family violence and securing safe houses for its victims. The city of Vranje provided location, along with all other necessary communal utilities for the staff of Safe house, while the B92 Fund had found donors that furnished this object, and total value of donated equipment and furniture amounts to RSD 1.5 million (companies Gorenje, Rapid and Simpo are among donors, beside the citizens of Serbia).

Given this fact, it is obvious that this project represents exceptional example of inter-sector cooperation between city authorities, NGOs and private sector that made joint efforts on the local level fighting this global problem of family violence.

On the occasion of opening this Safe house, Ambassador Kirby expressed his satisfaction that U.S. embassy participated in such an important project for the social system in Serbia: "This object means much more to us than mere investing funds in it. It represents hope that the state of victims' protection will be raised on the higher, more serious, level. Personally, I hope that the object will remain vacant, meaning that the violence does not exist, but it is important that this object is constructed. I am very pleased with what I saw here today, with the high quality of both construction works and equipment, as well as with the fact that this house fully complies with the highest green standards of thermal energy and heating pellets' usage."

Veran Matic underlined that "since the beginning of this year, 12 women got killed. This statistics of one woman ending up dead per week is rather disturbing. We can only imagine how many of them got beaten or exposed to psychological violence. Safe houses can serve only as first aid and the place where women could be empowered, while safe houses will be emptier when the prisons get crowded. On the other hand, current judicial practice is additionally devastating, almost stimulating abusers." "Court proceedings are being prolonged and the victim remains in that status for a long period of time, there are too many cases of suspended sentences, etc... This is a broader social pathology that can be dealt with only with strong political and social resolve to root out family violence. However, this can be achieved only with education, starting from kindergarten, through family, school, cultural and political spheres. Unfortunately, there is no strong commitment in making family violence one of priority social and political issue," Matic said.

Mayor Zoran Antic expressed his sincere gratitude to the United States European Command as well as to the B92 Fund on this donation, saying that Safe house will act within the Center for the development of local social services that used to run an improvised shelter for the victims of family violence.

Victims of family violence are among most vulnerable in the society and this project assists them in offering protection and significantly improving their quality of living. The support of the U.S. government to this important project only confirms their devotion to improving living conditions of all Serbian citizens. On the other hand, this is the sixth object of this kind that the B92 Fund helped since 2006, which speaks in favor of the continuous fighting against family violence in general.

"We strongly believe that we will jointly continue fighting it in future, until the final victory," the Fund said in a statement.