HUMANITARIAN EVENT IN AID OF BLIND AND DEAF CHILDREN AT THE WHITE PALACE

Belgrade, 19 April 2010 – Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine hosted a humanitarian event in aid of blind and deaf children tonight at the White Palace. This event was organized by HRH Crown Princess Katherine Foundation, in cooperation with Mr. Marko Stojanovic and Mr. Miodrag Kastratovic.

This humanitarian event was attended by Mr. Zoran Martinovic, State Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Mr. Predrag Jelicic, counsellor of the President of the Republic for people with disabilities, Mr. Vladimir Pesic, assistant Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Mr. Darko Ivic, President of the Council for people with disabilities of the Mayor of Beograde, Dr Branka Mikic, chief of rehabilitation for deaf and hard of hearing people at the Clinic for ORL at Clinical Centre of Serbia and Dr Elaine Laycock, long time friend and associate of HRH Crown Princess Katherine from the United Kingdom.

Welcoming the guests, HRH Crown Prince Alexander II emphasized: “Tonight, my wife and I are hosts of this very important humanitarian event. We always do our best to help the children of Serbia, especially those with health problems“.

Mr. Zoran Martinovic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy stressed in his speech: “ The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, according to the strategy for improving the position of people with disabilities and our own resources, supports projects and activities for people with disabilities, but also other socially deprived categories. I would like to stress the importance of the activities of the HRH Crown Princess Katherine Foundation, as well as other foundations that improve the position of all categories of the population that expect support of society in general.”

HRH Crown Princess Katherine emphasized in her speech: ”Children with sight and hearing impairments face numerous problems, including their education, but also diagnostics and treatment of their conditions. Very often they are discriminated against and excluded from the society, due to prejudices that accompany them. My Foundation wanted to draw attention of relevant authorities, and public in general, to problems of these children, by organizing this event.

It is of the utmost importance to take urgent steps to improve conditions in this field. All proceedings from this humanitarian event would be used to provide the most needed medical equipment for hearing testing and special traffic lights for blind people that would be installed near primary and secondary schools in Serbia”.

HRH Crown Princess Katherine Foundation would like to extend its’ gratitude to all the donors of this humanitarian event: Alpha Bank, Alpine d.o.o, Ball Packaging Europe, Coca Cola HBC – Srbija AD, Deloitte d.o.o, EKO Serbia A.D, EOS Matrix d.o.o, EQUEST d.o.o, Eurobank EFG, Free zone Pirot, JAT Airways, Megatrend University, Merck, Sharp and Dohme Idea Inc, Polimark d.o.o, Poljoprivredna banka Agrobanka A.D, Societe Generale bank Serbia, Stylos d.o.o, SD Investing Capital LLC, TIGAR A.D, Weishaupt d.o.o and Zepter International.

This event was also supported by: Art Ival, Big Fruit Company, Flower Shop Dahlia, Flower Shop Oaza, Energodata, EOL d.o.o. Ivanjica, Mr. Dragoslav Mihajlovic, Hyatt Regency Beograd, JP Zelenilo Beograd, Klas A.D, Park d.o.o, Educational Museum, Bakery Trpkovic, PG Kokovai Norbert Subotica, Restaurant Jezero, Studio 54, Svetlost Teatar, Veropoulos, Winery Rajkovic Brothers, Winery Radenkovic, Winers, WOW Winary, YU Ital Com.

Special gratitude goes to Belgrade Acoustic Orchestra, Mr. Marko Stojanovic, Mr. Miodrag Kastratovic and Mr. Vladimir Magdalenic.