During 2025, 26 themed summer camps were held within the Program of Financial Support, Measures and Activities in the field of Preserving and Strengthening Relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Diaspora, implemented by the office of the Minister. Minister without portfolio in charge of monitoring the situation, proposing measures and participating in the coordination of activities in the field of relations between Serbia and the diaspora, Đorđe Milićević, discussed the results of the held themed summer camps with the mayors and heads of municipalities across Serbia which had hosted the camps during 2025. Milićević said that every municipality and city was important in achieving the ultimate goal of strengthening the existing and creating even stronger ties between the motherland and compatriots living outside Serbia, and added that he was proud that summer camps had become a tradition.

The meeting stated that during 2025, they had hosted more than 6,000 young people from the diaspora and the region, and that 22 local governments had participated in the Program. ‘We wanted our children to learn even more about our country through the interior of Serbia, learning about history and culture,’ the minister noted.

Milićević added that in this way they encouraged children to think even more about Serbia and pointed out the importance of the project, announcing that next year the project would be improved, more comprehensive, more eventful, and have far more children participate in its implementation. Milićević expressed his desire to have each district organize operation of an office entrusted with creating a district-level database of all our fellow citizens living outside that district and outside each municipality. He added that the operation of such an office would be useful for the future, citing the office in Veliko Gradište as a positive example.

‘Regardless of the difficulties Serbia faced, we fulfilled our primary task, our children from the diaspora and the region were not deprived of events – summer camps, and their number year after year only confirms how much our people who live outside their motherland need them,’ said Milićević. ‘We created a bridge that connects Serbs with the motherland, we achieved this through play and education,’ he added.

Source: Politika

Photo: Tanjug/Dejan Živančević