In the municipality of Ruma 14 packages of building materials, each is worth up to 9,000 euros, were delivered today to the beneficiaries within the first subproject of the Regional Housing Programme of the Republic of Serbia (RHP). The last package, out of 104 financed from the RHP fund, will be delivered at the beginning of July.

Delivery of building materials package to the family of Bogdan Skoric, refugee from Croatia, who resides at the village of Nikici, Ruma municipality, was attended by Ivica Dačić, The First Deputy Prime Minister, Vladimir Cucić, Commissioner for Refugees and Migration, Michael Davenport, EU Ambassador, Gordon Duguid, Deputy Chief of Mission, US Embassy, Isabel Perich, Swiss Cooperation Office Serbia, Embassy of Switzerland, Vladimir Bilandžić, National Special Adviser for Confidence and Security Building Measures, OSCE Mission to Serbia and Hans Friedrich Schodder, UNHCR Representative in Serbia. 

The first RHP subproject is worth 2.2 million euros and is consisted of allocation of 70 prefabricated houses and 129 packages of construction materials. As a reminder, the delivery of first 25 packages of building materials packages in September and October 2014, which were financed by the contributions of the Republic of Serbia RSP-in, marked the beginning of the Programme implementation on the ground.

"We are currently implementing four sub-projects, which are worth more than 40 million EUR. They will provide 300 prefabricated houses, 1,079 packages of construction materials, 696 apartments and 370 rural households”, said Vladimir Cucić, Commissioner for Refugees and Migration and urged beneficiaries to apply to public calls and to report to trustees for refugees in their places of residence so that their housing needs can be listed.

It is planned, owing to implementation of so far approved subprojects, within next three years to provide around 6,500 housing solutions in the region, of which 4,153 families in Serbia to get a flat, prefabricated house, building materials packages or rural households,.

Regional Housing Programme is the joint initiative of the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia i Herzegovina, Montenegro and Republic of Croatia, with the aim to provide housing solutions for 27.000 most vulnerable refugee families, i.e. around 74.000 people in the Region. Out of this number, 16.780 families, around 45.00 people are in Serbia. Regional Housing Programme in Serbia will be implemented through several sub-projects within next five years.

Regional Housing Programme in Serbia is worth 335 million euros and the overall amount in all four countries is 584 million euros. The Programme is financed by the European Union, as the biggest donor, the U.S., Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Turkey, Luxemburg, Cyprus, Romania, Check Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

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Information about the beneficiary family

Bogdan Skoric (41) fled to Serbia in 1994 from the area around the town of Koprivnica in Croatia, and his wife Biljana (37) lived in Pakrac (Croatia).

They met and married in Nikinci. They have three children - Helen (19), Predrag (11) and Milica (9).

The family has been living in the same house for the last 12 years. The building material received through this Programme will aid them in the reconstruction of the house.