News

Day of Commitment to residents of flood regions was held on the territory of Novi Pazar. On February 9, a charity campaign has been held to collect clothing, blankets and food. This is a joint initiative of the Community Development Center – Novi Pazar, established by Center Amalipe, the local Family Counseling Center for Children and Parents and Roma Women NGO – ‘Hayachi’ – Novi Pazar. Donations have been collected during a previously announced call. Moderators of the Community Development Centers via door to door roundup in the Roma neighborhood of the town managed to collect donations for those living in afflicted areas. Though the Roma families from Novi Pazar themselves need support and help most of them living under very severe conditions, each house provided its share in this charity campaign. With the support of the Municipal Authorities the collected relief has been distributed to the village of Biser (Southern Bulgaria). Emiliya Aldinova, moderator at Community Development Center - Novi Pazar said that the idea came spontaneously resulting from empathy for the victims. Nobody has relatives among the victims of the disaster but ‘Roma who heard the news felt pain as if it has had afflicted their own neighborhood’, Emiliya said. ‘Among the Roma people in our town there are also many poor and needy people. But everyone gladly gave clothes and blankets, no one made a fuss about we being Muslims and the victims -Orthodox, we - Roma and they – non-Roma…after all, we are all human beings’, said Yusein Shakir a community moderator. Thus, residents of Novi Pazar have shown that tolerance and humanity make no difference to color, race and ethnicity.