
Care for children without adequate parental care in Southeast Europe
The beginning of the new 2020. for CBN SEE, it started off great. On January 31st and February 1st, our office in Zagreb hosted the First Round Table “South East Europe without orphans”. People from eight countries of Southeast Europe gathered: Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, BiH and Albania.
The purpose of our gathering was to establish and build relationships among people who share a similar vision of working with a vulnerable group of children across the southeastern region. For this reason, it was important to familiarize ourselves with the situation of each country in order to be able to agree on the next steps and future activities in the region.
It was a great honor to spend two days with people who have many years of experience in working with children without adequate parental care on a regional and global level. Most of them are adoptive parents and/or foster parents who shared their personal and professional experience from their country.
On Friday evening, we had a relaxed get-together over coffee or tea and getting to know each other, while Saturday was a working day, during which the representatives of each country conveyed to those present what is happening in their country through statistics and a description of what the government, non-governmental organizations and the church are doing in relation to children who they do not have adequate parental care.
We were all encouraged and encouraged to collaborate and pool our resources, experiences and skills in order to become catalysts for building and developing a movement for children who for some reason live outside their family in Southeast Europe. Thus, the goals of the First Round Table were fulfilled.
In the end, we believe that everyone went home encouraged, refreshed in their further work and vision, got some ideas and learned something new. But the biggest benefit is new friendships with people who share the same passion and love for the smallest among us who need help. In the Letter of our Heavenly Father, in James 1:27, it is stated that it is pure godliness to care for orphans. These verses should be a daily reminder to us to try to find a way, God’s way, to fulfill that God’s instruction.