Petrinja, Sisak, Strasnik – Earthquake fund relief!

Hi friends! Thank you again for your continued support and all the donations you made during the campaign.

Last week we've successfully verified a Charity association called Mali Zmaj (Little Dragon).

Yesterday, the funds have been transferred to their account, and we donated them to 19 families, a Music School Sisak and 'Bijeli Ocnjak' Animal Protection Association.

Our goal has been fulfilled, exactly 1 month after the devastating earthquake. The help these families needed, had to be concrete and fast, and we managed to provide it.

This was a very draining and challenging period and process even for me, but my heart is full of happiness and joy.

I wish to thank you again for your support and love!

You can follow my campaign updates with pictures included on my facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/goran.kova/

Today is the final day of the campaign! Can we hit a 100% mark? We only need 2.000 € more.

I want to thank everyone who donated, promoted and supported this campaign in any way. I appreciate you. Tomorrow I will start the verification process and when the transaction is made, we will start distributing the funds to all the families.

I will keep you posted.

God bless you and your families.

Goran

And finally, my hometown Sisak. Children and their future should come first. I was guided by that thought all the way. All the families I will help lived in apartments in buildings that are going to be demolished.

They are currently housed outside Sisak or in houses/containers they have been given for use. Everyone’s goal is to find a new place to live.

Lončar family (4-member family, two babies) - They received a red sticker for the apartment they just bought with a loan and picked up another loan for decoration (photos). Their grandmother’s house in Majske Poljane was also damaged by the earthquake, so they are currently housed with their parents. A family with two babies and young people to help them get back on their feet.

Tunjić family with an underage daughter - As with everyone, the earthquakes left great psychological consequences on the whole family. They cannot return to the apartment (the load-bearing wall of the building was damaged - photos attached), and they are currently located in Dugo Selo. They will have to return to Sisak for their daughter’s school, but unfortunately, they have nowhere to come back to. We will help them with a donation to find new accommodation.

Family Požgaj (5-member family with three children) - The father works in Germany and repays the bank loan. Three children are 9, 8, and 1-year old. Currently located in Sv. Martin. The building received a red sticker. We will help them return to Sisak and start a new life.

Tačković family (4-member family, with two children) - At the moment, they have received a container house. The building which they lived in will be demolished. Both parents have loans, and we will help them rent an apartment and return their family to a new place.

Animal Protection Association Bijeli Očnjak - You can also call them the Mesić family. I love animals, and I respect people who care for them and consider them their family. Mesic family is one of them. They lived in a house that was given a red sticker. Some of the animals were taken care of by volunteers, while some stayed with them. They had an issue when nobody wanted to accommodate them temporarily because of the few dogs that are their family. They did not want to be separated from them, under any circumstances. They found a beautifully secluded cottage, with a large yard (pictured) that could become their new refuge. We will help them make that wish come true!

Fran Lhotka Music School Sisak - I was talented, but also lazy, but I managed to finish elementary music school. I met a lot of friends there with whom I am still in contact today. I didn’t touch my guitar for 10 years after I finished school. Then something changed and I, semi-educated, formed a band, which is my greatest pleasure in the world. When I saw those talented kids on TV playing in front of a collapsed school, I decided. They have a lot more talent, will, and desire than I had at their age and I couldn’t ignore that and deny them help. The music in Sisak will not stop.

The campaign continues until the end of the weekend! We are approaching the figure of € 150,000. I have already earmarked all the funds for the families whose stories and names I have published. It is possible that, depending on the situation today and tomorrow, if there is a smaller amount left, I will donate it to other families at a later date. I will be announcing the next steps over the next week when I start the verification process. I am in private contact with all the families and I am getting the information I need from everyone for now.

Thank you everyone for your support and donations!

Glina. There's no person that doesn't know Dalibor Vignjevic. While I was inquiring about his situation, I was told - everybody here knows Dado, he is the good spirit of Glina. Life did not caress him, and so the story begins. Everything you read in the media is true, so I won’t go into much detail. (example: https://www.jutarnji.hr/.../boluje-od-raka-samohrani-je...).

I'll just say that we will help Dado with a donation from the campaign and that he has a great team around him that is already working on building a new house. The new land has already been purchased, the foundations are already being laid.

The other family we will help is the Jambrešić family from Novo Selo Glinsko. A 6-member family (with two underaged children) lives in the house that received the orange sticker (pictures attached). They are currently housed with relatives, and they plan to enter into loans to renovate the house. We will help at least partially get them started somewhere.

Finally, we have a young Mileković family from Glina. A family of three with a baby born a few weeks before the earthquake. The apartment they furnished for raising a family is unusable (pictures attached). Their parents house has also cracked and is not very warm for the baby. They are currently housed in Velika Gorica, and we will help them return to the path they set out on before these adversities.

The campaign lasts for another 3 days and by the end, I will announce which families from Sisak we will help. After the campaign conclusion, I expect about a week of operational work with the DUH Association and the GGF, after which we will start distributing funds.

Thank you everyone!

Next in line is Petrinja. A large number of acquaintances, a large number of families in need of help. Here are the ones we will help start from scratch as soon as possible:

- Željko Vrzan - you read about this gentleman in the media, and I have nothing to add. What is unfortunate is that a man was promised a car to be able to do his job (RTV service), after which the person stopped calling him. Mr. Željko will receive a donation so he can buy a car that which will help him continue the business from which he as a single father supports 2 children. (https://www.index.hr/magazin/clanak/prizori-koji-s...)

- Doris and Boris Barić - brother and sister whose father passed away, and whose mother suffers from cancer. Grandmother and aunt also live in the household. The earthquake damaged the roof of the house where they lived and which now needs renovation. Very humble and dear young people who stick together in all adversity.

- Family Čulibrk (4 members) - a young family with two children aged 5 and 7. In the earthquake, the roof of their house collapsed and they miraculously passed without injuries. Marko and his wife are educators, they work in school and kindergarten and we will help them.

- Family Ljubešić (3 members) - a young family with a baby of 6 months. Their apartment in the center of Petrinja was completely destroyed, and in the last 10 days they've been moved to Podravina, then back to Petrinja in a container given to them by the City and in which they were together with another family and in which they did not have conditions for a baby. Temporarily they went to the coast until they get their own container. They plan to have 4 children they want to raise in Petrinja, and we will give them support to execute that plan for themselves and their children.

I was in contact with many people from Petrinja, and families that were somewhat more exposed in the media - such as the man who saved his son from the rubble, and the policeman who selflessly helped others while his house was also wrecked. These people refused help, saying that there are those in more need and that they have been taken care of. I would like to thank them for their honesty and selflessness.

By the end of the campaign, I will publish the names of families I will help from the area of Glina, and of course Sisak.

In total, we will help about ~ 20 families, and I can tell you first hand that they are immensely grateful for the help and donations we have provided them. 🙏❤️

We are approaching the end of the campaign. As I announced earlier, I now want to confirm that I will carry out the final steps in cooperation with the DUH Charity Association. It is an association from Zagreb, founded in 2003. They help disabled and disadvantaged children.

Their significant experience with similar initiatives over the years will help bring this campaign to a successful end.

I will close the campaign in 5 days, on January 13th, and this update is already visible on the platform. After that, we will take the final steps towards fulfilling the goal of helping families who lost their homes after the earthquake in this region.

The plan is to directly help out around 15 families. So far, I wrote stories about 7 of them. and will cover others in my next updates. So far they are:
- Pavelic family from Gora village - (young family with a 2-year old daughter that needs a liver transplant)
- Kusuran family from Hrastelnica village - (6-member family with 4 children)
- Balen family from Petrinja - 20 and 16-year old sisters who lost their mother, with a history of mental disorders and tumors
- Batinic family from Strasnik - 4-member family (2 children)
- Salamun family from Strasnik - 5-member family (2 children)
- Staresinovic family from Strasnik - 4-member family (1 teenager)
- Pejakovic family from Strasnik - 3-member family (mother, brother and sister who unfortunately has a cerebral palsy)

Until the campaign is officially finished, I invite you to continue donating and sharing the campaign to raise as much funds as possible in the photo finish and help as many families as possible!

Thank you!

Today we are going to Strašnik. The place of the epicenter of the earthquake and a place that has been talked about a lot in recent days in the context of activities that should not have happened.

I managed to find 4 families who need help. I didn’t have the heart to pick only one because everyone needs help. For this reason, I will distribute the funds I intended for Strasnik to 4 families. We will help them get back on their feet and start over. I personally communicated with all 4 families.

They are:

- Batinić family - 4-member family with 2 children

- Salamun family - 5-member family with 2 children

- Starešinović family - 4-member family (1 teenager)

- Pejaković family - 3-member family (1 younger person with a disability - cerebral palsy)

All 4 households received a red sticker, and you can see the condition of their houses in the pictures. They are currently housed in garages, cars, or cottages they have managed to secure these days. We will help them start over and restore hope for a better tomorrow.

As I announced a few days ago, I will shorten and close the campaign in 5, 6 days at most. My plan is to distribute the funds to everyone by the end of the month.

I have already distributed the funds ‘on paper’ to the families I will help, and in the coming days (in agreement with them) I will publish it in this way.

The next family we will help out is one sad story, very difficult to swallow and I'm honestly sick to my stomach when thinking about it.

The family are sisters who lived in Petrinja. Ivana is 20 years old and takes care of 13-year-old Martina. They live alone on a welfare, and their mother passed away last year on their doorstep from a heart failure. Ivana was diagnosed with a tumor at the age of one, and one kidney was removed. At the age of 6, Martina was diagnosed with a tumor on her neck, which was removed, but left a mental developmental disorder and speech difficulties.

The father is an alcoholic and mistreats the girls, so they moved from Sisak to Petrinja to the apartment that their mother was supposed to get for housing, but after the earthquake that apartment is no longer usable.Martina's tumor has returned, and needs surgery again.

The girls are currently accommodated with Mrs. Natalija Vujic in Zagreb (near Lucko). Natalija herself has 4 children. Otherwise, they are related and the plan is for the girls to move permanently to Zagreb. Currently, Natalia is active in the process of obtaining custody of the girls through a lawyer. I am in contact with Natalija and Ivana, and I will visit them soon. We will help them settle in Zagreb and start a new life from the campaign funds.

Details of this story can be seen in Natalia's comment on this post: https://www.facebook.com/ana.bratanic/posts/102225...

As for the campaign in general, I will close it a little earlier than planned (probably mid January). The reason is because people need funds to get back on their feet as soon as possible.

I have found another family we are going to help get back to their home. They are a married couple with 4 children from Hrastelnica village (near Sisak).

They are extremely modest people whose last thought was to ask for help for themselves. Luckily, they have dear people around them who have pointed out their situation to me.

They are currently being housed with relatives because part of the roof on the house has collapsed. Thanks to the quick reaction of the team from their neighbours and locals, an assessment of the damage and costs of materials, as well as the reconstruction plans, has already been done.

We will cover these costs from the campaign.

I am currently in contact with over 10 families and assessing their situations. I have more than 100 appliations, and unfortunately it will not be possible to help everyone from my campaign.
I will give my best to cover as many as possible.

Thank you very much for your continued donations and support!

2021 has to start with nice news.

I would like to announce that I have found the first family that will be helped from the campaign funds.

I will not publish their names yet, but I have the consent to write something about them briefly. They are a young married couple, who live in the village of Gore near Petrinja.

Their house has been completely wrecked in the earthquake (you can see the pictures in my facebook post). They are currently temporarily housed in Vrbovec.

They have a 2-year-old daughter who has health problems and she was supposed to have a liver transplantation surgery these days.

We will help them without precedent. Whether in the form of a monetary donation, the purchase of materials for the renovation of the house, the costs of the girl's treatment or a combination of everything. We will agree on that later.

I have been in contact with them for the last few days. I heard about their story from an acquaintance from high school.

I am also in communication with other families all the way from Sisak to Petrinja, whom we will directly help by financing construction materials for the house renovations, donations and such, but all in due time.

This is the first family you will help! Feel proud and I hope it warms your hearts. Thank you all once again. 🙏❤️

The campaign continues. I wish you and your loved ones a happy and calm 2021.

Best,
Goran