Education and health are basis of any healthy society

Education and health are basis of any healthy society

Not only does Saatchi & Saatchi do our campaigns pro bono, but together we define the actions, concepts, strategy, and only then approach the creative solutions. Creative solutions are fully subordinated to the goals when it comes to focusing problems, fund-raising, education, etc.

According to the results achieved and the number of awards won, mainly at major international festivals, it turns out that the B92 Fund is most successful advertiser in the region, and the agency Saatchi & Saatchi Belgrade among the most successful companies in the Adriatic region. A total of 71 awards.

Let's recall.

The campaign Chronicle of Threats won 12 awards, including Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, Eurobest, Golden Drum ...

The campaign One Photo a Day in the Worst Year of My Life won 25 awards including festivals including Cannes Lions, Epica, New York Festivals, Golden Drum, PIAF, AdForum...

The campaign Battle for the Babies was ranked among the best and given 25 awards in some of the biggest festivals such as Cannes Lions, Moscow, Golden Drum, BalCannes...

The campaign Hunger Strike was decorated with nine awards at Eurobest, Epica, Golden Drum and several national and international festivals.

We speak with Veran Matic, B92 News Editor-in-Chief and B92 Fund's President of the Board of Directors about the foundation, its projects and cooperation with the Saatchi & Saatchi.

MEDIA MARKETING: The B92 Fund carries out exclusively socially responsible campaigns. What you want and what can you achieve with such campaigns?

VERAN MATIC: This week I was in the village of Vrbnica at the border with Montenegro, at 1300 meters above sea level, near Sjenica, where we started the campaign "Battle for Schools." A huge number of schools in Serbia still has outdoor toilets, no indoor plumbing, no heating. A large number is ruined, devastated. Blackboards on the walls are from fifty years ago, and so on. We renewed this school, which is attended by sixteen children and five preschool children by replacing all that was needed, we built a toilet in the school, introduced heating, a small gym, modern teaching aids... The faces of these children, teachers and parents should be seen when only in one month they got excellent conditions for work in an otherwise abnormal and harsh weather conditions.

With this action, we will endeavor to stimulate as many citizens as possible to get involved in the action, to think about the future of the country through the development of education, acquiring new knowledge, with equal conditions as much as possible, wherever children live. It is unworthy to work in conditions that we found in this village. In addition to promoting the reconstruction of schools, we try to spur the solving of other problems of that region, building roads, encouraging entrepreneurship, construction of facilities for first ai, health centers.

Education and health are the foundation of a healthy society. Unfortunately, we have a very bad situation in both that needs serious help from institutions such as the B92 Fund.

Also, I was in Kosovo this week in the largest enclave, where we built a new house for a family, as they lived in an old house with the constant threat that the dilapidated ceiling would come down on them and their baby daughter, Adjela. In addition, there is the problem of the mixed marriage between a Serb and an Albanian from Albania, for whom it was very difficult to obtain citizenship, which is again important for the health insurance and everything else. We were able to provide them with a basis for normal life and continue on, they will be provided with the digging of a well, installation of water, and a tractor to cultivate the land, a greenhouse, to be able to support their family and become self-sustaining from a social case. These Romeo and Juliet had another baby while we were building the house and this is a nice symbolic example that Serbs and Albanians can build their future. Otherwise, on Pester, I saw a lot of greenhouses and the school principal told us that wherever we see a greenhouse there is an Albanian woman who married to a Serb, they brought resourcefulness and skills related to growing vegetables, etc.

It can be seen through these two examples what we want, to help as much as possible concrete citizens in a concrete way, in addition to animating and disseminating ideas of solidarity, but also by educating the society about the need to take matters more into their own hands, about entrepreneurship...

MEDIA MARKETING: Are the results of these campaigns measurable and what are they?

VERAN MATIC: The Battle for the Babies was measured by the percentage of reduced mortality of premature babies and we have received convincing data about it. The same applies to the Battle for Maternity Wards, we have completely rebuilt over 25 maternity hospitals in Serbia. On Monday I was in Novi Pazar presenting a donation of equipment worth EUR 90,000 and which provided all of the equipment for the maternity hospital which became a topic two months ago when a helicopter crashed while attempting to save the life of an endangered baby (because complete medical assistance could not be provided on-site). We animated also the Turkey agency TIKA to help finance the construction works on the maternity ward, so that with along side the complete new equipment there will be a practically new maternity ward, that is one of the largest in Serbia by the number of births. And there will be a measurable effect when they see the results related to mortality, but also for the quality of life of babies and children later.

It is difficult to talk about the number of lives saved, but it can be assumed when you see the difference in the amount of equipment and its quality.

Thanks to the campaign against breast cancer, we were able to inform and and educate most women to have preventive examinations, as well as when it comes to cervical cancer...

Last year we fully equipped the Emergency Center to make this kind of emergency assistance more efficient and better. This year we provided all health institutions in Serbia with dermoscopy devices for skin cancer screenings. The number of preventive examinations increased.

When it comes to the campaign against domestic violence, we built six safe houses that saved a large number of women, but we also made great progress in terms of legislation and practice, in terms of the visibility of this issue. Now we're moving on and working on the empowerment of women going through shelters through education for jobs that could make them self-employed and not dependent on a partner abusing them, or the like.

The campaign One Photo a Day in the Worst Year of My Life sparked a great local but also a global debate, because there is no more notable world media that did not write about the campaign, which has so far been viewed by over 47 million people worldwide and more than 10,000 participated in a debate on the internet.

MEDIA MARKETING: How do you finance your campaigns?

VERAN MATIC: The campaigns are dimensioned according to the estimates of how much funds we can raise. 1.3 million citizens, companies, local governments, NGOs, etc, took part in Battle for the Babies. Our cooperation with Misa Lukic and the Publicis Group is very important, and primarily with the creative team of Saathchi & Saatchi (with the campaign Hunger Strike Against Hunger this team was in Leo Burnett). In fact, not only do they do our campaigns pro bono, but together we define the actions, concepts, strategy, and only then approach the creative solutions. Creative solutions are fully subordinated to the goals when it comes to focusing problems, fund-raising, education, etc. Creative people are usually also directly involved in the implementation of the actions, not only through pro bono services, but also through personal activism. It can be said that this explans more than eighty local and major international awards for our joint campaigns.

When I mentioned Battle for the Babies I have to thank Banja Luka's m:tel with whose support we raised funds for a significant donation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Cooperation with the agency Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the most awarded and most creative in the region, each time proved to be extremely successful. The enthusiasm and commitment with which we approach every project were crucial in achieving common goals. Regardless of the difficulties and limitations that we encountered during the implementation of campaigns, their results again showed that creative ideas have the power to change the world. Courage, ambition and perseverance are the ualities that I associate with the agency Saatchi & Saatchi, whose experienced team of professionals believes that nothing is impossible to achieve. I really it is not.

Many donors link the reliability of the operation with the B92 Fund, so that we have a very high degree of transparency and success. We have frequent campaigns which bring together a large number of participants with small donations, because we think that everyone should have the chance to get involved, to feel nice and useful by giving, and thus in different ways raise sufficient funds to solve some important problems . There are private companies, wealthy individuals, government agencies, local governments, etc. Of course, there are also organizations and companies from around the world.

We are trying also to create local coalitions, for example to address the needs in Jagodina, the local government, local businesses and individuals to invest in their maternity wards and to maintain it later. We also identify individuals who might solve some problems in their own hometowns. When I learned students in the elementary school I attended continue to use the outdoor toilet that was built when I was in school, I gathered friends and raised enough money to build a modern sanitary infrastructure, I think that everybody can and must do that, to care about that,it is a kind of giving back to society, but also an investment...

MEDIA MARKETING: How many other media are involved in your campaigns, to what degree do them support them, can the synergy of the media industry be utilized in such cases?

VERAN MATIC: The connection with the media company B92 is extremely helpful. Almost every week, once or twice, there is a report about a case of poverty, disease, etc., which cannot be resolved through some regular channel, and most often citizens voluntarily offer to help. When we do bigger campaigns, we also plan for participation of journalists, newsrooms that launch topics, and then report regularly about the progress and how to participate. Most often other media accept to participate, to follow. Of course there are situations when support is lacking because it allegedly concerns competition, etc...

But today we have a democratization of media platforms and thus, social networks compensate for non-participation of some traditional media. And what media could provide 47 million views of a video?

The local media are much more present when we are solving problems at the local level.

MEDIA MARKETING: What can we expect soon from the B92 Fund?

VERAN MATIC: The Fund has at this moment turned its attention to refugees, because this is something that is currently happening, and is also a kind of key event that raises many other issues. We are primarily focused on providing initial assistance, which is necessary at points where refugees gather. I am sure that the activities of our representatives and the many citizens helped us all be proud of the overall attitude of our country toward the refugees. After the first impulsive reaction, we are preparing for the coming months which will be more complicated, especially through the establishment of an info desks in a park at the bus station, which should connect (via information in all relevant languages ​​- Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, English), all institutions and their activities with the refugees themselves, to help them receive the necessary information as soon as possible, we want to, n this population, first of all help the children and the women, and of course all those who are sick or have other limitations. It is very important to produce dedicated maps and provide them with free internet, as we have already done on one location in cooperation with Telenor. Now work is being done on a mobile application for all those who use wi-fi, but also for other, providing basic information, a hub to charge mobile phones, providing used phones that will be available to those who do not have them to contact their families, and so on.

All these actions are long-term. As you can see, by dealing with domestic violence, not only have we managed to build seven shelters, and once we build two more (the first in Sremska Mitrovica is in the final stages of construction) this will be an adequate network of such institutions for the entire territory of Serbia - but also to impose this topic as one of the most important in the country. Violence against children and against women is really a cancer of society, and it is essential that, in addition to saving lives, do intensive work on prevention, rigorous and efficient legal protection, removal of the perpetrator from the home immediately after the reported violence, etc. We work on projects empowering women who have experienced domestic violence, so that they could achieve economic independence and to completely eliminate the need to return to their abusive husbands. We are doing this experimental project with the UN Trust Fund and UN Women in Sombor through education for growing organic vegetables, but also for a range of crafts that can help them start their own business. Recently with the company Direct Media we agreed to hold regular meetings of women managers of the company with thee women and children in safe houses in Belgrade, that they once a week cook together, bring in hairdressers, have manicures, pedicures, animators for children, socialize, listen to each other's problems. From this spawned the decision of Direct Media to completely reconstruct three houses that already eroded by time and high usage. This communication often solves a number problems that women and children have. This is a model for other companies and all the ways in which they could engage in socially responsible activities, business... This is a higher level than the "cold" planning of the budget for this activity and paying someone to spend in the smartest way. Thus we also help directly, and enrich both others and ourselves.

Also, in cooperation with AVON and the Embassy of the United States, each October we celebrate the so-called Pink Day, drawing public attention to the problems faced by women with breast cancer and helping organizations across Serbia demonstrate their activities and values ​​they fight for. This is a continuation of our campaign from the past to supply a digital mobile mammography device, which will soon be operational again. We deal with children and young people through a range of actions and projects - from cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Education with which we work on the safe use of the internet, through the Battle for the Babies and Maternity Wards that the public knows very well, all the way to the Free Zone Junior and ReGeneration, in which we provide young people and their teachers the knowledge and tools to use alternative teaching methods, but also to activate the youth in society through responsible behavior towards themselves and towards their community. The Battle for Schools is just a natural extension of all these years of efforts of the B92 Fund.

Our long-term idea is to create much broader activities of solidarity in society, to develop charity, philanthropy, to expand fronts, but also to join forces, to educate, sensitize for goodness. We would like to launch an academy for charity, philanthropy where we would educate and individuals, but also representatives of various companies and social organizations, about socially responsible work, to create a nursery.