The Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Mr. Skender Recica, together with the Manager of the Portfolio for Sustainable Development at UNDP, Mrs. Shkipe Deda-Gjurgjiali, today distributed coupons to support over 2,000 vulnerable families living in extreme poverty that will be used for 3 months for the supply of food, hygiene and other essential items.
This support, implemented for the first time in Kosovo, is realized through direct financial support from the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and is dedicated to families with difficult conditions, mainly those with only one parent and other families in vulnerable situations.The Minister of MLSW, Mr. Skender Reçica, said that, in this difficult pandemic situation, helping families from vulnerable groups receiving social assistance, best shows all our commitment and commitment as MLSW, to be close to the citizens who need to give you a helping hand.
Minister Mr. Reçica thanked and expressed gratitude to the government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for financial support and UNDP for implementing the scheme to support as much as possible the fulfillment of the needs of vulnerable groups. Also, Minister Reçica said that, as Minister of MLSW, I am very happy that I have as few opportunities to be close to these families and my commitment to improve the lives and well-being of citizens will never be lacking.
While, Shkipe Deda-Gjurgjiali from UNDP emphasized that, through this scheme we want to give these 2,000 selected families the opportunity to buy the necessary things that they need most and that have not been provided through other humanitarian aid.
The card / coupon scheme program aims to divide families into 3 groups and financially support each month, during the 3-month period with different values such as:
– Families up to 1-4 members with 180 euros for 3 months (60×3)
– Families with 5-7 members with 210 euros for 3 months (70×3)
– Families over 8 members with 240 euros for 3 months (80×3)
The main groups of beneficiaries will be low-income families, single-parent families, families with special needs and poor families living in rural areas.
The identification of eligible families will be done in close coordination with the Centers for Social Work. Those who will be selected must meet certain special conditions in addition to the general ones where initially all families must be beneficiaries of the social assistance scheme either from the first or second category and belong to one of the categories as the most follows:
- Single parent, with emphasis on single mothers
- Families who have the problem of unresolved housing
- Families which have sick and disabled persons within the family
- Families with more children in school
- Households from remote rural areas which have difficulties in the labor market
- Minority families in a difficult socio-economic situation
This donation was provided as part of the immediate response to COVID-19 under the Project, Mitigation of the Impact of the Humanitarian Crisis and on Health as well as Basic Social Protection for the Most Vulnerable Groups, funded by the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, through LuxDev, in a total amount of 1 million EURO.