Mennonite
Central
Committee

Serbian Christians reach out to older people

Tim Shenk
April 17, 2006

Wars in the former Yugoslavia displaced millions of people in the 1990s, and several Evangelical churches in Belgrade, Serbia, felt a strong call to assist refugees arriving in their city.

They formed a humanitarian organization called Bread of Life in 1992 and provided food, clothing and other aid to about 100,000 refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo over the next 10 years.

Today, the influx of refugees has ended and Bread of Life, a partner organization of MCC, is assisting people, including retirees and people with disabilities, whose needs are neglected as Serbia struggles to recover from war.

Older people are particularly vulnerable to poverty and social isolation in Serbia, according to Jasmina Tosic, the director of Bread of Life. Many families are unable to support elderly parents and grandparents because of high unemployment.

Bread of Life staff members and volunteers make daily visits to several hundred retirees and people with disabilities in Belgrade. They cook meals, do household chores, assist with taking medication and provide other assistance.

MCC provides $11,500 Cdn., or $10,000 U.S., a year to Bread of Life to help pay staff and transportation costs.

"Very often, when the volunteers build a relationship with them, people pray," Tosic says. "They also start to ask about the meaning of life why this, why that. People really need answers to the meaning of life."

Bread of Life staff members asked MCC to put them in contact with an Anabaptist retirement community in the United States because they were interested in learning more about how churches can care for older people. Tosic was invited to visit Palm Village, a Mennonite Brethren retirement community in Reedley, California, and spent six weeks there in February and March.

Tosic says she learned about the social, cultural and religious activities that Palm Village residents enjoy. She also observed that residents benefit from a strong sense of community. "There is a very strong commitment in the community that people are taking care of each other," she says.

There are no Christian retirement communities in Serbia because religious groups were not allowed to run organizations under Yugoslavia's communist government, Tosic says. Serbia has some government-run retirement communities, but they are only able to serve a small fraction of the elderly population.

Tosic says that she would like Bread of Life to start a Christian retirement community in Serbia but adds that it will take years to realize this dream.

"Our level of care is growing each year," Tosic says. "We learn more and more and this is a process of learning and growing."

 

Tim Shenk is a writer for MCC communications.