Head of the Delegation of the European Union, Ambassador Vincent Degert, opened a new building of the kindergarten “Veselo detinjstvo” in Raška by which he concluded his three-day visit to South West Serbia.
Ambassador Degert met with Jovan Čorbić, the Mayor of Raška, after which he visited the kindergarten. Through European Partnership with Municipalities Programme EU PROGRES 98,000 EUR were allocated for the final works on the kindergarten. There are 120 children on the waiting list for enrolment into kindergarten in Raška since the old kindergarten building was not spacious enough for all the toddlers of this municipality. Starting from next autumn, the children from the list will be attending this kindergarten while 16 new employees will be hired.
“The new kindergarten will become fully operational on 1 September 2013, after a lot of invested effort. This is one of 16 projects that EU PROGRES is financing in Raška, the total value exceeding 660,000 EUR. We are planning the construction of a waste water treatment facility since environmental protection is one of the priorities in the European Union. Thus, we will attempt to implement this project together with Raška. The second priority is economic development of the municipality. In order to keep the kindergartens full, we must provide good living conditions for the families,” said Ambassador Degert.
“It took a lot of effort throughout years to construct the new building of the kindergarten “Veselo detinjstvo” in order to provide accommodation for all children. The municipality of Raška showed great dedication to successfully complete this project. Within the project, a draft of the new rulebook on children enrolment was prepared that would create equal opportunities for all parents who want their children to attend,” said Jovan Čorbić.
The head of the EU Delegation presented the Mayor of Raška with a grant contract for equipping this kindergarten for which the European Union and the Government of Switzerland would appropriate 80,000 EUR through EU PROGRES. In this way, the Ambassador Degert concluded his three-day visit to South West Serbia during which he stayed in Priboj, Nova Varoš, Sjenica, Novi Pazar and Raška and visited projects that were funded through EU PROGRES.