Children’s playground at the Palic Zoo refurbished through joint forces

Students of the primary school “Matko Vukovic”, volunteers of the Youth Office and migrants currently staying at the Reception Centre in Subotica, joined forces today to refurbish the children’s playground at the Palic Zoo. The result is a nicer environment for all visitors, especially the youngest ones.

They distributed paintbrushes and a small paint roller among themselves, and then jointly embarked on repainting the existing playground equipment. Among the hard-working people was twelve-year-old Vahid Barzadi from Afghanistan, who has been staying with his family of five at the Reception Centre in Subotica for a month and a half. He says he likes the Zoo, particularly the fact that there is plenty of space for playing. In order for other children to be able to play too, he rolled up his sleeves and joined his peers in painting the swing.

Today’s voluntary work was organized within the EU Support to Migration Management in Serbia. In addition to painting the playing equipment for children, new benches and waste bins were also donated to the park.

Jelena Maric Lukovic, on behalf of the EU Support to Migration Management in Serbia, said that with this activity the local community and migrants have shown once again their desire to contribute to the common good and the city where they are staying and living.

“Subotica is a city that has been recording a transit of a large number of refugees and migrants since 2015. Today, through this voluntary activity, together we painted all the equipment at the children’s playground. We donated four new benches, waste bins and other supplies, which will be used to enrich this oasis of rest and make it a bit more beautiful”, sad Ms Maric Lukovic

Petar Savic, director of the Palic Zoo, said that more than 150,000 people visit this attraction annually, with half of them being children. He also added that this donation is even more significant because the youngest will benefit from it.