They had their lives, homes, families, jobs. And then something happened; the life brought an obstacle that they could not overcome. They got stuck in there and tumbled down. They lost the stronghold and ended as homeless.
There are several dozens of homeless people in Mostar who mostly sleep in demolished buildings in the city center or under the open sky, regardless of the weather conditions. In such facilities, they hide from the bright lights of that city which forgot those people. The exact number of homeless people is unknown and no one is trying to define it.
However, Mostar has citizens who have always been known for their humanity and warm heart, so it is not surprising that the Association Minores from Mostar fights for the survival of 10 homeless people who spend their nights in the city ruins.
Since the temperatures are extremely low, around 20 members of the Association Minores had their hands full of work these past few days. Nevertheless, they managed to visit all the homeless people and equip them for these cold days.
“We visit these homeless people once or twice a week and give them warm food, pastries, and drinks, and everything else that they ask for: clothes, shoes, hygienic supplies, blankets. Since the meteorologists announce even lower temperatures, we give our best to visit them as often as possible,” said Anica Ištuk, a member of the Association Minores.
One of the homeless people is in a difficult health condition and they are working on collecting the paperwork and financial means for his accommodation in the home for the elderly and feeble people. But that is not all! Minores also takes care about 30 socially endangered families from Mostar.
“Socially endangered families receive packages of food items, hygienic supplies, clothes, shoes, and everything they need for life, on a monthly basis,” Ištuk said.
Several families got firewood for the winter and the Association invites the citizens to contact them if anyone wants to help.
The focus of Minores, the Association that has been operating in Mostar for four years already, is on helping the socially vulnerable people and homeless people in that city. The initiative was launched by the Friar Dalibor Milas. However, were it not for the humanity of the citizens, the idea would never come to life.
It is known that there is no home for the homeless in Mostar and its environs. The Red Cross Mostar has been thinking about opening accommodation for the homeless in the Northern Camp, where the soup kitchen is located so that the homeless would not have to spend their days on the streets without elementary conditions for life. However, the authorities did not support them, so it all ended on the idea. This association intends to make this happen and through different projects they raise funds to make a shelter for the homeless in Mostar.
“The end and the most important goal of ours is to open a center for resocialization of the homeless and socially endangered families. In this way, we offer them a short-time help, we make sure that they are not hungry today, but we currently cannot offer then an opportunity to change their lives. We invest a lot of effort in the opening of this center, which would give these people and opportunity to start a new life,” Ištuk said.
Mostar would thus become one of the rare cities in BiH which can boast with such kind of help and problem solving, because previous experiences in this field are negligible.
(Source: faktor.ba)
