"My new nickname in school is Gates, but you can call me Bill”
Computer training for children without parents

"My neighbour has both mom and dad, and he also has a computer, but he still doesn't know all this”, says a child from Zrenjanin who is attending the computer training intended for children without parents.

Children without parents are often exposed to an extreme risk of poverty. Once they leave the institution for social protection or the foster family, they are in line for hard work of ensuring their existence and job seeking. Since they used to live in protected conditions, in an orphanage, they very often lack support of their surroundings, as well as information and skills that would help them find adequate employment.

For these reasons the Independent Agency Pergament offered computer training to children without parents who live in foster families in Zrenjanin, in partnership with the Center for Social Work in Zrenjanin and with financial support provided by the Social Innovation Fund of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. The project intends to lend support to foster families who do not have the means for supplemental and additional education for the children, and who do not own computers. The computer training provides children with skills that will certainly be required in their future work, and they attend the classes together with children who live in their own families, which raises their self-confidence and helps their peers who live with parents accept them as equal.

The training was attended by 35 children (aged 10 to 16) without parents. 21 children showed remarkable results during the basic training, and they expressed willingness to continue with the training. They will attend an advanced computer course. Seeing the significance of the project, the local self-government and local private companies in Zrenjanin assisted the project with CSD 114,000.

In line with the recommendations laid out in the Poverty Reduction Strategy, this project implements several new, important principles in the field of social welfare: a decrease in the number of beneficiaries into social protection institutions (deinstitutionalization), an introduction of new actors in social protection measures (profit and non-governmental sector) and a more active participation of municipalities in creating and implementing social policy at the local level.

Social Innovation Fund (SIF) is a program of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Affairs that represents one of the social welfare reform mechanisms through which recommendations laid out in the Poverty Reduction Strategy are implemented. So far, SIF has financed 88 projects in 59 Serbian municipalities that enhance the quality of social welfare for the most vulnerable population in Serbia, with support from the Government of the Republic of Serbia and international donors. SIF activities are supported by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR), UN Development Program (UNDP) and the Kingdom of Norway.