The City of Bijeljina is well on its way to becoming the third city in the Republika Srpska to offer personal assistance services. The draft budget of the City of Bijeljina for 2025 provides 60,000 KM for this service, which is a significant step towards its implementation. The budget proposal will be presented to the councilors at the City Assembly session scheduled for December 17, 2024.
This is the result of months of efforts led by local organizations of people with disabilities, led by the Association of Women with Disabilities “Impuls”. A key step in this process was the adoption of the Rulebook on the Provision of Personal Assistance Services by the Public Institution Center for Social Work Bijeljina, which defines the criteria, procedures and method of financing the service.
“Our goal is for this service to come to life and for as many people as possible to receive the support of personal assistance,” said Vesna Savić, secretary of the Center for Social Work.
After this important milestone, a new series of activities will follow to enable the full implementation of the personal assistance service in Bijeljina. The first in a series of steps is for the Public Institution Center for Social Work Bijeljina to issue a public call for applications from organizations that would provide the service. Once the process is completed and the final selection is made, the service will be able to start.
“To be honest, it is now a pleasure to enjoy the result of our initiative. When we started, we were optimistic and knew that we would achieve this result. Organizations of people with disabilities bear some obligation and responsibility towards their users for tomorrow to provide them with this service and not deny them this right. We are all open to discussion and we hope that this process will continue ,” said the representatives of the “Impuls” Association.
The introduction of personal assistance has broad support from people with disabilities, as well as organizations that represent them, and they eagerly expect everyone to contribute to making the service a reality.
Source: pragg.ba
