BUJANOVAC - The Center for Non-Violent Resistance and the Center for Educational Policies are going to present the preliminary results of a feasibility study for the opening of institutions of higher learning in Presevo and Bujanovac at the Small Room of the Community Center in Bujanovac at 10 am on February 18, 2010. The study resulted from a several months’ long research, which was conducted as part of the „Reform of the Educational Policy in South Serbia“ project, which systematized the elements of educational system in Serbia and perceived the comparative experiences from the region, based on which the possible scenarios for future activities will be offered.    

BELGRADE – On Tuesday, February 16, 2010, Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Serbia, met with MP Riza Halimi and with President of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja Milan Markovic.

Sasa Jankovic, the Protector of Serbia’s Citizens, said yesterday in Medvedja that the greatest number of complaints lodged by the citizens of this municipality, as well as by the citizens of the municipalities of Bujanovac and Presevo, referred to poor administration.

Experts of the Protector of Serbian Citizens’ Office are going to stay in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja on February 11 and 12, 2010, where they’ll be receiving complaints of the citizens against illegal or irregular operation of the governmental bodies. Legal advisors of the Protector of Citizens will be receiving the citizens of Bujanovac on the premises of the Municipal Assembly from 8 am to 6 pm on Thursday, February 11. They will be receiving the citizens of Presevo on the premises of the Municipal Assembly’s hall from 8 am to 6 pm on Friday, February 12, and in Medvedja on the premises of the community center from 8 am to 6 pm on the same day.

In September 2009, Health Center Medvedja applied in the Coordination Body’s open competition with the project “Medical Assistance to and Care of the Persons with Special Needs and Vulnerable People”. The said open competition was announced as part of the Program for Distribution and Usage of the Funds for the Projects related to the Exercising and Promotion of Social and Minority Rights and Particular Qualities. The funds amounting to 1,356,500.00 dinars were approved to Medvedja, so that, in December 2009, it got an ambulance, the  aim of which is the improvement of healthcare, follow-up and provision of additional medical care and services to particularly vulnerable groups of people.

A meeting on identifying problems with cultural needs of the young from the municipality of Bujanovac was held in Bujanovac on Tuesday, February 9, 2010. The meeting was organized as part of the project “Promotion of Cultural Needs and the Spirit of Tolerance among the Young of the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja”. The project is implemented by the “Center for Democracy and Development of South Serbia” NGO, which uses the funds received in an open competition of the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja.

On Saturday, February 6, 2010, the Civil Resource Center from Bujanovac organized two lectures, which were part of the “The Young for the Young” project, which is funded by the Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja. The first lecture was dedicated to volunteering, while the second one was on the harm that tobacco and tobacco smoke cause to people’s health.

By the end of the year, 1,000 inhabitants of the Jablanica district will have a chance to attend for free a course in the use of computers and the Internet. Priority to attend the course will be given to persons with special needs, farmers and inhabitants of rural areas, Roma and those who have been unemployed for a long period of time.

Clemens Koja, the Austrian ambassador to Serbia, along with representatives of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), talked yesterday in Bujanovac with Saip Kamberi, the president of the municipality of Bujanovac, about the establishment of the Albanian National Council, as well as about making investments in South Serbia. 

Thomas Moore, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, said that it was very likely that the Albanian National Council would be elected in Bujanovac by means of direct elections. "I think it’s up to each family do decide if they wish do have a direct vote in deciding about the use of their national symbols or their language. A great many signatures have already been collected. I believe it’s quite likely that the necessary number of signatures for direct elections of the Albanian National Council would be collected by expiry of the deadline.”