Kamendin (Serbia) and Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) 20 June 2019 – RHP donors, Partner Countries and international stakeholders celebrated the World Refugee Day together with beneficiaries in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Serbia, the RHP stakeholders gathered together in Kamendin, in the municipality of Belgrade, to hand over the keys to new apartments for 270 beneficiary families. This is the biggest RHP building constructed so far, with a total cost of EUR 11 million, out of which EUR 8 million is financed by the RHP Fund and EUR 3 million by the City of Belgrade.

Both the RHP donors and the representatives of the international community shared the message from Ivica Dacic, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, thanking the beneficiary families for their patience: “You have all been waiting patiently not only these two years for the construction works to be finalised, but you have also spent 20 years in refuge, without a roof over your heads.”

All stakeholders also confirmed their continued support to this important initiative. As stated by Yngve Engstrom, Head of Cooperation, EU Delegation to Serbia: “We are proud to be the biggest donor to the RHP and our intention is to continue to support this important initiative until its completion in 2021.”

Tomas Bocek, Vice Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank, highlighted that the City of Belgrade has a particularly important role to play in the RHP, by contributing in many ways to providing a durable home to more than a thousand families within the RHP.

In Sarajevo, the World Refugee Day celebrations were dedicated to the beneficiaries of the Regional Housing Programme. The EU Delegation hosted an event, in cooperation with the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, UNHCR, OSCE and the CEB, where RHP donors and local and international organisations had the opportunity to discuss with the beneficiaries directly the impact that the RHP has had on their lives.

Thereafter, a TV show was recorded at the BHTV studio where three RHP beneficiary families presented their life stories. The TV show, together with the latest RHP film “Here to stay”, will be broadcasted on the BHTV channel shortly.

Damir Barucic, RHP beneficiary from Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, said: “No words can describe the feeling of getting an apartment, especially when the owners of the house you have been living in ask you to move out. For us, this project is immense.“ 

See short clips on the two events:

Today we are celebrating the handing over of 2⃣7⃣0⃣apartments in Kamendin, Belgrade: construction works on the largest #RHP building in Serbia 🇷🇸 👇#WorldRefugeeDay #WRD2019 #RefugeeDay
w/ @SerbianGov @kirs_srbija @beograd_rs @EUICBG @osce_serbia @UNHCRSerbia @COEbanknews pic.twitter.com/J9XhqvuG41

— Regional Housing Programme (@RHP_RSP) June 20, 2019

➡️ On the #WorldRefugeeDay at @eubih in Sarajevo, we had the chance to talk to beneficiaries from Bosnia & Herzegovina 🇧🇦 whose lives have been rebuilt thanks to the #RHP ⬇️⬇️⬇️ 📽️#WRD2019 #RefugeeDay @eubih @oscebih @USEmbassySJJ @refugeesmedia @NC_UNHCR pic.twitter.com/AY3VHLGnO6

— Regional Housing Programme (@RHP_RSP) June 20, 2019

See link to UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report:
https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2019/6/5d08b6614/global-forced-displacement-tops-70-million.html

RHP info desk:  Secretariat of the Regional Housing Programme ceb-rhp@coebank.org