EU support, mammographs and vehicles for kindergartens

Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia Vincent Degert commissioned today the first of 21 mammographs donated to health centres in Serbia by the EU. Degert also handed over 10 vehicles for kindergartens.

At a ceremony in Aranđelovac General Hospital, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia Vincent Degert commissioned the first of 21 mammographs donated to health centres in Serbia by the EU.

It is tragic that some 1,300 women in Serbia die of breast cancer each year and this is why it is necessary to motivate women to get involved in the early detection programme and save lives, Degert said at Aranđelovac hospital.

He reminded that cancer was a cause of increased mortality rate in Serbia due to late detection; most frequently it is colorectal cancer, cervical and breast cancer.

Degert pointed out that early detection was of key importance and appealed to the women of Šumadija to join the prevention programme.

The EU-funded breast cancer prevention project is worth EUR 6.6 million.

"As of today, this city has everything it needs for proper diagnostics of breast cancer. A highly sensitive scanner is now the only part of equipment missing for overall diagnostics”, says Periša Simonović, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health.

In his words, the lives of 12,000 women belonging to the vulnerable group are now in their own hands, and they can choose either to use this right or not to use it.

Vehicles for kindergartens

In the framework of EU funded project "Improvement of preschool education in Serbia” implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science, 3.75 million EUR was disbursed from the pre-accession funds in order to improve the quality of preschool programmes.

At the handover ceremony held at “Duga” (The Rainbow) kindergarten in Aranđelovac, ambassador Degert said that some 47% of children under six attend preschool education and that the goal is to increase this rate to 70%. In his words, the first prerequisite is to provide transport for the children.

Since it is not easy to get children to go to school, we want to bring school to them, Degert said, and highlighted that it will help the children in remote villages and those from vulnerable groups, such as Roma and poor families, as well as disabled children to attend the preschool programme.

"Our message from this event is that the EU is not only about negotiations, conditions and criteria which have to be fulfilled, but also about concern for the quality of life of citizens everywhere,” Degert pointed out.

Serbian Minister of Education and Science Žarko Obradović said that preschool education in Serbia was part of the education system and that 99% of children are involved in the preparatory preschool programme.

We want to include the children from marginalised and socially vulnerable groups and enhance the accessibility of education, so that our children can be equal with the children in the EU in terms of availability and quality of knowledge, Obradović said.

Nine modern vans and one bus – a mobile kindergarten will be available to children in Beočin, Aranđelovac, Ražanj, Mali Zvornik, Surdulica, Bela Palanka and Petrovac na Mlavi.

A mobile kindergarten bus was sent to Požarevac, equipped as a playground for preschool children belonging to socially vulnerable families and minority groups from rural areas, who cannot attend preschool institutions.

Total value of supplied vehicles amounts to EUR 400,000.