More than half a million citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are in the social protection system. There are almost 120 thousand children among them. The coronavirus pandemic has further pushed BiH into poverty. Last year, the first soup kitchen for babies was opened, and those who never needed help started asking for it.
Meals in the soup kitchen mean a lot to Miladin and Sahija from Tuzla. Difficult life circumstances and a returnee life forced them to seek help.
“I don’t leave this kitchen while I’m alive. My kitchen, my life. I don’t have any income, two children, they don’t work,” explained Sahija Pekic.
“I started coming here five or six years ago because we were not entitled to a pension. And what is worse than a refugee? Areturnee,” stated Miladin Jevtic.
The fate of the two Tuzla citizens is shared by more and more citizens across the country. Soup kitchens are recording a daily increase in the number of users. Banja Luka’s Mosaic of Friendship used to distribute 300 meals a day, now 700, on weekends up to 1.000. Besides food, humanitarian associations pay for medicines, procure wood, and help with rent.
“It was almost necessary for people to leave one house because their rent is 180 marks. They cannot pay it. We published a story so later some good people would pay three rents. And that was good for those people to begin with, ” told Miroslav Subasicfrom “Mosaic of Friendship of Banja Luka.”
“Compared to last year, as of December 31st, we had 2.400 users, now we have 2.552, which is an increase of 152 meals, ie users increased compared to 2021,” told Mensura Husanovicfrom “Merhamet Tuzla”.
BiH is shown as a poor country in United Nations (UN) reports. As many as 15 percent of citizens live in absolute poverty, and every sixth citizen survives on 90 to 150 marks a month. It is devastating that these data were created before the pandemic.
E.Dz.
Source: BHRT
