United We Can Change Lives

Republic of Serbia has gone through turbulent times in the dawn of a new millennium, and as a result had experienced numerous hardship and struggles in the past few decades. During that time, the fall of the living standard of the population and the increase of poverty in Serbia resulted in the first place from a great fall in the countries' economy. The most important factor in the growth of poverty was the fall in per capita income while official unemployment has increased. This situation in the labor market caused a fall in real incomes. The poverty has increased by the burden of 480,000 refugees mainly from Bosnia and Kosovo. Poverty in Serbia Official statistics show that about 800,000 people are poor and about 1.6 million people are at risk of falling below the poverty line. Observed by households, 10.3 % or about 250,000 households in Serbia lives in poverty, and 19,5% or about 500,000 households were at risk of falling below the poverty line. 185,000 people receive social welfare from the country.

The most vulnerable categories of the population Categories of population in Serbia who are at the greatest risk of poverty are: Elderly people (65+) and children Households with five and more members Elderly single persons and two member households, particularly in rural areas Agricultural pensioners, particularly in rural areas The uneducated Unemployed and supported persons The population of rural areas of Southeast and Western Serbia Roma, internally displaced persons and refugees, as well as persons with disabilities belong to the vulnerable groups exposed to the highest poverty risk.

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat." Mother Teresa

UNITAS Fond is an independent Serbian humanitarian foundation founded in February 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia. The foundation acts both independently and in cooperation with other humanitarian organizations and what separates Unitas Fond from most of the others humanitarian fond is that 100 % of each donation goes directly to people in needs. Unitas Fond – Who we are The main objectives of the organization is to address and battle famine and poverty in Serbia, and to target and help the most endangered members of the Serbian population through its own programs and through the Serbian soup kitchen networks. Although a very young organization, Unitas has already earned a highly respected status in the Serbian humanitarian circle, having participated in many projects this year and conducted many joint ventures with Red Cross Serbia. Unitas Humanitarian Fund Serbia works under the auspices of Unitas Humanitarian Foundation Switzerland and Unitas North America which have been founded to increase the impact of our ideologies and goals.

Identification of social problems The betterment of the lives of the most endangered population The gathering and distributing of humanitarian help Providing humanitarian help to the socially endangered Identifying and eliminating the causes of poverty of the most endangered population Support in informing and providing rights for the most endangered population Aiding the overall betterment of the standard of the population Unitas Fond - Goals and Objectives

Unitas Fond - Red Cross Network Red Cross Serbia soup kitchens distributed over 100,000,000 meals from 1992 to There is currently a need for approximately 36,000 meals daily in 70 soup kitchens in Serbia, not counting Belgrade. For its efforts, and in the spirit of a continuing collaboration, Red Cross signed a memorandum of understanding with Unitas Fond, an official document of cooperation. This makes Unitas Fond one of very few private organizations that have this contract with the Red Cross organization.

1. Unitas Fond aided and continues to aid in supplying soup kitchens in three municipalities which are considered the poorest in Serbia, these soup kitchens feed circa 1,500 people each month Merosina Doljevac Bela Palanka 2. In the aftermath of a devastating flood in the city of Novi Pazar, Unitas was among the first organizations along with Red Cross to send relief packages Unitas Fond - Some of the Things We Did 3. Unitas supplied four Serbian elementary schools in Kosovo with computers necessary for the education of underprivileged children 4. Meroshina – Project “Meroshina’s 200”, In January 2013, Unitas Fond provided 360 packages of foodstuffs and toiletries for the families in need in Merosina municipality in the South of Serbia

Unitas Fond’s main focus will remain on feeding the hungry, therefore the main objective of the organization is to organize a self-production and self-distribution system. The objective is to make food production and distribution centers in areas which are the most endangered. These centers will provide an opportunity to hire many people who are unemployed and on welfare, thus providing them with full-time jobs while also giving them a chance to provide and give back to those in need like themselves. Unitas Fond prepared 1000 food and hygiene packages for Prokuplje and Kursumlija, located in Southern Serbia. Unitas Fond also recently signed a cooperation agreement to support Shelter for children in Belgrade. “Unitas Workshop” is a new Unitas project which is close to realization. In this project Unitas will identify families with the greatest need of immediate and concrete help. With a team of experts (doctors, construction workers, hygiene specialists etc.) Unitas will go to their homes and address and improve the crucial elements of their lives (health, nutrition, hygiene, living surrounding etc.). This whole procedure will be filmed and edited and the material will be offered to television networks in hope of getting aired as a humanitarian reality show, in which case all the television proceeds would go directly to the financing of the show in which a new family would receive help every week. Unitas Fond – Current projects

Unitas will establish a special fund “United for a Life” which will be aimed at sponsoring big medical operations for children that lack finances for expensive interventions Unitas will establish the “United for a Safe Tomorrow” scholarship fund. This fund along with the collaboration with universities and high schools across the country will help finance, each year, the schooling of select bright children and adults that wish to have a higher level of education but had no means Unitas will launch a program for sponsoring the elderly and children that are alone and in need of help. In this program an individual will be able to choose a person he wishes to sponsor on a monthly level, this constitutes expenses for food, shelter, medication and other essentials. The sponsor would be able to receive monthly updates on the wellbeing and state of his beneficiary Unitas Fond – Current projects

We Must Do Better Because They Deserve Better

We Appreciate Your Valued Time, Please remember, United We Can Change Lives, Thank you, UNITAS FOND If you wish to help, please visit us at