About four months ago, a Fulbright alumni, Kelsey Montzka-Bötteger, and a current Fulbright ETA, Jessica Collins, in Niš, Serbia traveled to Preševo, Serbia to volunteer with the refugees crisis in the Balkans. Since August, an average of 4,000 refugees have been passing through Serbia daily, an estimated 500,000 in total. International and local volunteers have dedicated hours of service to these refugees - distributing chai, food, hats, gloves, jackets and shoes. Serving as guides to the refugees as they make their way from the Macedonian border, to the one-stop registration center in Preševo and then on to Sid at the Croatian border.
After about a month of volunteering in Preševo, Kelsey and Jessica saw a need that went beyond volunteering on the ground. They wanted to create an organization with the structure of an NGO, but with the flexibility and creativity of independent volunteers. Therefore, North Star: United Volunteers for Progress was born. North Star was the created with the initial goal to pilot the project 'Guiding Light'.
(Photo credit: Edd Carlile)
Learn more on our website here: http://northstarserbia.org/
€1,500 Tipping Point Goal
Guiding Light's primary function will be to assemble and train teams of mobile, experienced independent volunteers, accountable to a strict code of conduct who can quickly mobilize and respond to the refugee crisis. The team members of Guiding Light will also provide logistical support and facilitate communication and identification of individuals who fall through the cracks. Special attention will be paid to monitoring at night, after 12 am.
Each team will be comprised of 3-9 individuals able to work round the clock at an action point. Team members will consist of unemployed/underemployed individuals/students with flexible scheduling, transport, lodging, small food stipend provided.
Team members must have prior volunteering experience and/or have completed community engagement training. It will be preferable that each team is comprised of one farsi speaker, one Arabic speaker, one Serbian speaker per team.
Additional funding will be spent on uniforms for the team members, to be worn when they are working at the refugee camp.
These funds will be used to start up the Guiding Light project through March of 2016.
