The forgotten poverty” “

“At the beginning of the 1990s, Serbia and Montenegro, together with the republics of the former Yugoslavia, had all the requisites to ensure their transition to a modern market economy and a democratic society with far less tensions”: that’s the opening analysis in a Report of Caritas Serbia on poverty in the region. But “a dramatic drop in gross domestic product, international isolation, penal and economic sanctions and then the bombardments of 1999 with the arrival of over 700,000 refugees in Serbia, has led the entire region to a situation of great poverty”. According to the estimates of the World Bank, the poverty rate rose from 2% of the population in 1988 to 21% in 1998, impacting especially on the more vulnerable sections of society (the elderly, children, the unemployed and factory workers). The State is only able to offer minimal state benefits (50€ per month per family member) to some 650,000 persons, out of a population of 10,651,000, of whom 24% unemployed. THE CONSEQUENCES OF POVERTY. Poverty – says the Caritas Serbia Report – has many catastrophic consequences; in the first place, corruption at all levels and in all spheres of life, but especially in the sectors of healthcare, education, justice and police. This, apart from undermining the possibilities for the growth of a new democratic state, is exacerbating social divides and discouraging foreign investments. A second scourge is that of the traffic in human beings, with the consequent proliferation of organized crime and “the destruction of human rights”. On the social level, it’s especially young people who are suffering from this situation, due to spreading unemployment and the collapse of family values. One boy/girl out of every 4 lives in a single parent family, because often one of the parents has emigrated in search of work and formed another family there. Caritas denounces a decline in the number of marriages and fertility among the younger generations, but it is especially “deviant forms of conduct” that give rise to major concern: 26.4% of girls have had a pregnancy in adolescence, and 22.3% are forced to abort. The use of drugs begins on average around the age of 13; alcohol abuse at the age of 12. THE PRIORITIES: YOUTH, THE ELDERLY, THE SICK AND LARGE FAMILIES. The apostolate among the young is indeed one of the main priorities of the Church in Serbia. The watchword is “formation”. Other priorities are the consolidation of institutional relations between Church and State, that may lead to the formulation of institutional provisions on religious freedom, on the legal recognition of the charitable action of the Churches, and on the return of expropriated church property, the launch of cooperation at the regional level, to share resources and experiences, and, not least, the pastoral ministry to the elderly, the sick and large families who are often living in a desperate situation. AID IS NEEDED FOR THE SELF-DEVELOPMENT OF THE SERBIAN PEOPLE. “60% of young Serbs would like to leave the country – Msgr. Stanislas Hocevar, archbishop of Belgrade has explained to SIR -, and this is a great challenge to us. We intend to do all in our power to ensure they stay here in Serbia”. The Serbian Church is in fact studying with the Caritas agencies of the Balkans and Catholic Relief Service (a US aid organization) how to create a network of cooperation to seek ways out of this situation. Of course, admits Hocevar, “the fact that we don’t yet belong to the European Union does not help. We thought that with the Stability Pact something could be done, but the results cannot be seen. With EU enlargement attention is being focused elsewhere. Many don’t know that in Serbia and Montenegro there are Catholics that could actively engage in social work”. Among its initiatives, for instance, the Serbian Church has launched a service for the social reinsertion of orphaned or stateless children. The various ills denounced by the Caritas Report also include corruption, the consequence of poverty and unemployment. “People don’t see any future and in order to survive succumb to deviant behaviour of this type – comments the archbishop -. One solution may be that of familiarizing people with the social doctrine of the Church, which is unfortunately unknown here. We are thinking how we can increase people’s sense of responsibility, given that the spiritual dimension in far more accentuated than the social one in the countries of Eastern Europe”. The appeal to other European Churches is to “help us to develop Caritas not only as a relief organization but also with programmes of self-development, in such a way as to create jobs and help others in turn. Self-help projects of this type are lacking and the chances of starting them are still remote in the light of current political changes”. (Elections took place on 28 December with the victory of the radical party of Seselj and the socialist part of Milosevic, both being held in The Hague on charges of war crimes and genocide).