HELPING ROMA TO START PRIVATE BUSINESSES

28. April 2014.

Vranje – As part of the project “Support for Roma Entrepreneurship as an Alternative to Seeking the Asylum Protection in the EU”, three Roma entrepreneurs received financial assistance to start their own businesses. Milkica Mihajlovic from Trebesinje, Igor Kurtic from Bujanovac and Stanko Selimovic from Vranje had the best business ideas among 54 individuals who applied for the project. Under the contract, they were each provided 150,000 dinars to start their businesses

According to Ivana Stosic, the Director of the Business Incubation Center (BIC ) in Vranje, assisting Roma for the purpose of creating new jobs for them is intended to deter these people from leaving the country and seeking asylum in one of the western countries.

Milica Mihajlovic will try out bee-keeping and honey production, Igor Kurtić will start producing helium balloons for decorations, while Stanko Selimovic will open a printing office for stationery.

The project “Support to the Roma Entrepreneurship as an Alternative to Seeking the Asylum Protection in the EU” is the result of work of the Roma Centre for Democracy, in cooperation with the “484” Group from Belgrade and the “BIC” from Vranje. The financial support amounting to 994, 000 dinars was provided by the Office of Human and Minority Rights of the Republic of Serbia.

Source: “Jugmedia” and the Coordination Body