The Central Council of Serbs in Hessen recently organized the first reception in the centre of Frankfurt. As she promised when elected to head the Central Council of Serbs in Hessen, Dijana Avdić has started implementing plans and actions with the management board.

The reception was attended by the teaching staff of Serbian language supplementary classes in the province of Hessen, Jumas Medoff, president of the Parliament of the city of Frankfurt, representatives of clubs and associations from Frankfurt and surrounding cities, Danijel Dejanović, director of the Adult Education Centre (VHS) in Frankfurt, and many businessmen, authors and members of the Central Council of Serbs in Hessen.

Dijana Avdić presented previous work of the Central Council of Serbs in Hessen to the guests and spoke about the plans this organization wanted to implement in the coming period:

– I would like to thank everyone for coming to the first reception of the Central Council of Serbs, and we wish to continue gathering in the future at such and similar events in order to get to know each other better and, so to speak, to network and thus strengthen our Serbian community in Hessen and other provinces. We are here primarily to help our people, our clubs and associations with various issues or problems, and to reach the desired results together. In the coming period, we want to help establish new Serbian associations and expand our activities to the provinces of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. We aim to advise our people in various areas of the German system such as healthcare, education and social system.

Avdić adds that they intend to expand cooperation with all German and Serbian institutions, to strengthen cooperation with Wiesbaden, the capital of the province of Hessen.

– We also plan to organize various events for youth, a mentoring program for women, a visit and tour of the Bundestag in Berlin and Landtag in Wiesbaden and much more – says the head of the Central Council of Serbs in Hessen.

Among the guests at the reception was Danijel Dejanović, the only Serb and foreign director of the Adult Education Centre in Frankfurt. The idea arose recently that the curriculum of the Adult Education Centre might also include learning Serbian.

Dejanović says that there are several foreign languages offered at the Adult Education Centre, and that Serbian might be included in the program.

– The only question is the level of interest, if there is sufficient interest, Serbian will be available to all adults wishing to learn. We also need to see if we have teachers able to teach Serbian and that is one of the reasons for my being here tonight – said Dejanović.

He adds there are 32 adult education centres in the province of Hessen, Frankfurt being one of them and also the largest in Hessen.

– In Germany, which has about 900 adult education centres, we rank right behind Hamburg and Cologne by size. Annually, we have about 60,000 visitors at our seminars, and 150 full-time employees and about 1,000 part-time lecturers working at the Adult Education Centre Frankfurt.

The reception was preceded by a meeting of the Central Council of Serbs in Hessen with representatives of clubs and associations from Frankfurt and surrounding cities on cooperation in the coming period.

At the reception, Dijana Avdić presented Milorad Miki Milenković with a certificate of appreciation for his many years of contribution to preserving the culture and identity of the Serbian diaspora and his long-standing work in the Central Council of Serbs in Hessen.

Organization of the first reception of the Central Council of Serbs in Hessen was financially supported by the young entrepreneurial couple Nikoleta and Andrija Raković from Frankfurt.

– We are interested in cooperating with our people who live in the province of Hessen and all of Germany, and this is an extraordinary opportunity to expand cooperation with the Serbian community. We operate in various business fields, the firm Aeroliving deals with real estate and cooperates with construction companies, and we recently established the Mommy & Me Baby Spa in Frankfurt, open to moms with babies, but also dads with babies. Babies will be occupied with various activities, while moms and dads undergo treatments – say Nikoleta and Andrija.

Source: Vesti online

Photo: Z. Vicelarević