"Equal Chances for the Future"
How to be sure that children are at school?

The Ada municipality has over 19,000 inhabitants. 3,100 of the number are functionally illiterate. This once developed economy has sustained a hard blow in the 1990s, which brought a large number of families to the verge of existence. Around 35% of able-bodied population is unemployed, and many employees do not receive regular income. 240 households do not have electricity installed. Still, children are the most endangered.

The Duga NGO, in cooperation with the newly established Poverty Reduction Committee of the Ada municipality, has been implementing the “Equal Chances” project for 6 years, in which 73 children from poor families of all nationalities are included. Some of these children never before attended primary school, or due to a large number of absent days reached the 4 th or 5 th grade practically illiterate.

"If it weren't for the project, I probably would not be going to the Medical School today. I had dropped out of school twice because we did not have money. Ever since I joined the Equal Chances project, I have been finishing one year after another“, says Denis, whose life dream is to become a medical practitioner. Having won second place in the Health Care Team Competition, Denis is preparing for the Republic Anatomy Competition.

Main goals of the project are education (primarily regular school attendance), introduction of cultural and hygienic habits and the socialization of poor children. With the help of two assistants of Roma nationality, these children are aided to go to school duly dressed, clean and with all necessary books, in order to have equal chances for the future as all other children. Every morning they come to the day care center, take their schoolbags and leave for school together. They return to the day care center after classes and have lunch. Afterwards they write their homework, study or do other school activities assisted by 8 teachers and tutors.

The Poverty Reduction Committee in Ada was established as a municipal body in September 2005. The goal of the Committee is to implement the Poverty Reduction Strategy at the municipal level. The Committee of the Ada municipality is the first institution of the kind in the country, important also for the fact that 7 municipalities in Serbia are planning to establish similar committees based on the example of Ada .

8 of the 73 children have enrolled secondary school. Two Roma girls have in this way finished high school, and one of them has become an assistant at the project. This data is more important when it is acknowledged that the last Roma finished high school in Ada in the late 1985.

The “Equal Chances” project is implemented with financial and material assistance of the Social Innovations Fund of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Affairs, Srbija Gas, Fund for Open Society, the Panonia Bank, the Red Cross, the Blue Cross, Save the Children organization and the local government. Additionally, significant help is provided by the preschool institution, individual citizens, arts and culture associations and private companies.

In addition to the care in regard to the education and socialization of poor children, added value is achieved thanks to the project: parents have more time on their hands to look for jobs, and thus solve their problems in the long run and ensure a better future for their children. In order to help them, Duga and the Poverty Reduction Committee are organizing classes for adults in order to finish discontinued primary school education or to obtain a craft certificate. In this way work on several segments recognized as priority in the Poverty Reduction Strategy is achieved.