Tons of flour, oil, vegetables, meat, fish, and other products are part of the latest humanitarian shipment from Sarajevo, which arrived in July. This shipment will enable the preparation of 1.400 meals every weekend for the next three months at the soup kitchen “Mozaik prijateljstva” in Banja Luka.
This aid has been sent to Banja Luka for almost two years by the humanitarian organization Pomozi.ba from Sarajevo.
How did the cooperation start?
At the soup kitchen “Mozaik prijateljstva,” between 700 and 800 meals are prepared daily. On weekends, according to Miroslav Subasic, the founder and manager of this soup kitchen, almost twice as many meals are prepared.
“Around 1.800 people seek help in various ways. This public kitchen is unique because it receives the least support from the state, city, or anyone. The assistance we receive from the city, about 12.500 BAM, is enough for maybe a month’s worth of meal preparation. Everything else comes from the help of kind people,” explained Subasic.
The Sarajevo-based organization Pomozi.ba has been supporting the Banja Luka soup kitchen since the COVID-19 pandemic. The cooperation agreement was signed in October 2022.
Since then, the Sarajevo organization has been providing 1.400 meals every weekend for the users of the soup kitchen in Banja Luka.
“Practically, food for Saturday and Sunday is provided by Pomozi.ba, and during Christmas, Easter, or Eid holidays, people in Banja Luka receive meat, clothing, and many other supplies through the assistance of Pomozi.ba,” said Subasic.
He emphasized that this is “a wonderful story” in times “when people are divided.”
The goal is friendship and cooperation to help people ‘on the edge of poverty’
Saliha Roksa from the organization Pomozi.ba highlighted that the goal of their help to Banja Luka is to establish friendship and support with the organization to assist people on the edge of poverty.
“Our friends from “Mozaik prijateljstva” are truly dedicated and fight daily with numerous problems, and we are glad that we can help them in this way and reduce their worry about whether they will have something to cook for their fellow citizens tomorrow. Before signing the agreement, we sent them assistance in the form of meat, flour, clothes, and shoes,” said Roksa.
From her experience in humanitarian work, she noted an increase in the number of people seeking support in healthcare.
“Every month, dozens of our fellow citizens contact us, needing some support for their treatment. Sometimes it involves large financial resources for surgeries and treatment abroad, and sometimes it’s about paying for medicines that cost around 30 BAM, which pensioners with minimal pensions cannot afford,” explained Roksa, RSE writes.
E.Dz.
