Croat expats donate minibus to Children's Home in Sisak
ZAGREB, 3 Nov (Hina) - "One Croatia" initiative, which brings together associations of Croat expats worldwide, on Thursday donated a much-needed minibus to the Vrbina Children's Home in Sisak, completing a round of $500,000 in donations raised to help firefighters, structural engineers, hospitals and emergency medical services in the earthquake-affected Banovina region.
The Vrbina Children's Home has 12 residents, school-age children without parents, and the minibus will be used to transport the children to school, to events and holidays on the Adriatic coast, Steven Živko Pavletić, the president of ACAP (the Association of Croatian American Professionals), a member of "One Croatia" initiative, told Hina.
The Children's Home director, Đurđica Pavešić-Herkov, has been attending 'One Croatia' meetings since the earthquakes of two years ago. She said they were thinking about what kind of donation would best suit their needs and decided on a vehicle given that their lease on a minivan was running out.
Today's donation marks the final stage of an enterprise that has been going on since the earthquakes in Zagreb and Banovina, where about 30 Croatian emigrant organisations from around the world spontaneously got together as part of what they called "One Croatia", Pavletić said.
The initiative started with ACAP, a relatively new Croatian diaspora organisation, and the aim was to raise $500,000. They had around 1,500 donors, mostly individuals among the Croatian diaspora, but large companies contributed as well.
Among the first donations after the earthquake in Zagreb was an incubator for the Petrova Street Hospital, which has helped 60 children so far, and donations also went to the Pediatrics Ward of the KBC Zagreb hospital, COVID hospitals in Zagreb and Split, for equipment to the Sisak General Hospital and an ambulance to Petrinja.