Uni joins effort to send flood relief

The Balkan flood has slipped out of the media spotlight but the devastation remains. Bosnia-Hercegovina and Serbia need billions of dollars for reconstruction after the catastrophe that killed scores and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
The damage in Serbia alone is estimated at EUR 1 billion, plus perhaps a similar amount in lost economic output and extra imports. Many Serbians living abroad are trying to help their homeland in every way they can, and they are getting help from the whole of Europe.
One of the helpers is Katarina Kusic, an employee of Central European University in Budapest who organised with her colleagues and students a campaign for collecting donations. “Within five days we got HUF 380,000 and 20 boxes of non-perishable food, hygiene products, baby products, cleaning agents and medicines,” she said.
They gave the money to the Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian Red Cross, while the Orthodox Church and the Bosnian Embassy took care of transporting the goods to the affected areas.
Kusic said the decision to help was spontaneous. The Serbian and Bosnian Red Cross had published a call for help in many local media. While students in the two countries organised groups on Facebook and Twitter to build dams and help in emergency shelters, the students in Budapest wanted to take part as well. They immediately started a group on Facebook and the first donations quickly arrived. Even though a lot of international help has been received, there is still much to do.
The Serbian government has opened a PayPal account for donations: floodrelief.gov.rs. Goods can be donated at the Serbian Embassy, György út 92b, District VI, especially cleaning agents, hygiene products, baby food, blankets and medicine. Clothing has a lower priority. www.budapest.mfa.gov.rs