The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International is providing emergency management supplies for families in Serbia that have been driven from their homes by landslides and heavy flooding in March and April.
ADRA is providing items such as food parcels, hygiene parcels, and rubber boots for 2,100 families in the affected municipalities of Zrenjanin, Beocin, Secanj, Golubac, Smederevo, Belgrade, Titel, and Trstneik. The intervention, which will last three weeks, will begin distribution during the second week of May. It will secure the hygiene needs of beneficiaries and provide food for needy families for one month.
80% of the affected area is inhabited by extremely poor Serbian families, as well as those of the Roma population. The majority of the residents live below the average national economy line. ADRA's primary focus will be on the poorest villages located in the province of Vojvodina and alongside the Danube in Southern Serbia.
The flooding was caused by heavy snowfall late in the season, and was intensified by the spring rains that arrived last month. Between the 14th and the 16th of April, the water level in rivers reached the highest point in 100 years, submerging nearly 300,000 acres of farmland and causing to date an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people to flee their homes.
The project is funded by ADRA International, in partnership with ADRA offices in Australia, Denmark, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the Trans-European divisional office, headquartered in Watford, England. The project is worth nearly $75,000.