Alena Lonić, teacher of English language in the elementary school “Branko Ćopić” in Donji Agići near Bosanski Novi, achieved an unusual success – she pledged to the donors to help send her entire class of 15 students to an excursion entirely cost-free.
“Regardless of the fact that almost all parents of the children in my class do not have a job after the war, but instead they live of agriculture and agronomy, I understand their responsibility and the host culture and I know they would find a way to pay for excursion. I only wanted to make it easier for them,” Lonić said.
The school decided to organize a graduation trip for one of the best classes of this school after the war – to send them to Neum for four days. Their motive was the fact that the majority of children have never been to the sea before, or anywhere farther, except for a trip to Banja Luka that they had organized earlier.
However, more than 3.000 BAM were needed to send all 15 students to a graduation trip on May 13. That is why Lonić scheduled meetings with representatives of local enterprises. Moreover, she also contacted her family in Germany, who used the power of social networks. “Everyone paid 10 or 20 EUR,” Lonić said.
“Other sponsors are our domestic cooperative ‘Agrojapra’, domestic sawmill ‘Livno-tehna’, accounting office ‘Ninić’, and others,” Lonić said. In the beginning, Lonić’s ambition was to at least decrease the amount of funds that families must pay, but the campaign yielded even better results than expected.
“This is really important for us. I am the only one working in the family, so the donation for the trip for these kids, including my child, is a significant relief for our house budget. We are all very grateful,” said Dragica Pauković, one of the parents.
(Source: fokus.ba)
