Western Balkans

For almost 30 years, HIA-Hungary has been actively involved in providing humanitarian aid to the people living in the area, in implementing integration and development programmes, helping disaster victims, organizing courses and providing support in finding employment and staying on the labour market. In recent years, our work has focused on supporting the education of children in the area – a cornerstone of our response after the 2020 earthquake in Croatia.

How do we help?

Humanitarian assistance
Children development
Rural development

Current activities

On 29 December 2020, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 struck central Croatia, with Petrinja as the epicentre. The earthquake killed seven people and injured several others, causing extensive damage to the city and its agglomeration, and damaging thousands of homes and public buildings, making them uninhabitable. In the aftermath of the disaster, Hungarian Interchurch Aid launched a nationwide fundraising campaign to support the reconstruction efforts in Croatia following the earthquake and immediately became involved in damage assessment and humanitarian coordination work. With the support of the Hungary Helps agency, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Government of Croatia, work was finally able to start on several project sites.

Glina Highschool

Based on local coordination and assessments, HIA has been involved in the rehabilitation of the secondary school in the municipality of Glina, in Sisak-Moslavina zupanija. The severely damaged building was found to be salvageable, and once structural repairs are completed - expected in 2023 - our organisation will implement improvements to the school to ensure the quality of education. The donation will be used to revitalise the empty and dilapidated library, replace equipment in the various laboratories and rooms destroyed in the earthquake, and refurbish the multimedia equipment in the similarly damaged building.

Residential containers for earthquake-affected people

To help the people who lost their homes following the earthquake, HIA - in cooperation with 23 Hungarian companies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade - installed housing and sanitation containers in two municipalities severely affected by the disaster. A total of 120 mobile units (108 residential and office units and 8 sanitary containers) were distributed 50/50 between the county centre of Sisak and the village of Lekenik. Only three months after the earthquake, the mobile containers were already in place and were handed over to the population severely affected by the disaster on 20 April 2021.

No 1 Primary School, Petrinja

Primary school No 1 in Petrinja was severely damaged in the December 2020 earthquake, and since then students have been forced to study in alternative classrooms all over the city. Just a year and a half after the groundbreaking ceremony, the school is now a brilliantly modern building with 20 classrooms, two gyms, a canteen and a fully equipped courtyard and playground. Funded by the Government of Hungary's Hungary Helps programme, HIA completed the new building in late 2023.

Previous activities

We provided support to children in Vojvodina (Serbia). In 2019, the students of a primary school in Novi Sad received school starting aid after buying school supplies, and on Christmas nearly 50 needy Hungarian children and their families received a Christmas gift package: enough sustainable food and cleaning products for months.

Previous activities

After the Balkan wars, we have been present in the region since 1995: we have provided classic humanitarian assistance during the refugee crises together with our local partner organization. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we undertook to rebuild war-damaged houses and schools, and in Serbia initially we took part in alleviating the effects of an acute humanitarian crisis.

Previous activities

Along with alleviating the acute humanitarian crisis, we also launched a development programme in the Sandžak region of Serbia in mid-2000s. The main priority was the development of the labour market. Computer courses, as well as English and German language courses were launched for the needy population in towns; for small businesses a telehouse was established providing IT, telecommunications and office services. The rural was supported with a self-sustaining sheep breeding programme, backyard and semi-farm greenhouses, and farmer training to prepare for joining the European Union.
At the seat of the province, we organized a multi-annual drug prevention programme for students, teachers and parents in primary and secondary schools, as well as a training, housing and health development programme to help integrate the Roma minority.

Previous activities

We were active in Vojvodina as well, focusing on the labour market development and Roma integration. Provision of humanitarian aid in the province became necessary as a result of the flood in the Temes region in 2005, where we also took part in the remediation.

Previous activities

After the floods and landslides in Bosnia and Serbia in 2014, we helped on the spot from the very first day: initially we supported the families who lost everything by providing food and clothing. Following the quick relief, we provided assistance within a longer-term international assistance programme and we also carried out a reconstruction programme in Bosnia, in a village called Nemila, and, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, we provided additional post-flood rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The value of the provided aid exceeded HUF 100 million.

Since 1995

100 thousand

people received direct help.

1,5 billion

HUF was the total amount of the programmes.

Donors