2. PROZORCIC

Prozorcic: The Beginning

We are an activist group called Prozorcic and we are based in Jagodica, Serbia. We are currently working on the problem of school closing in Oktisi village of Jagodica district. Oktisi primary school was closed in July 2009 because of the small number of students. When the school was closed all the students were transferred to Jagodica primary school. Oktisi local council signed a decision (http://decisionOktisi-school) that regular free bus transportation will be provided for the students. However, when 2009 school year started, there was no bus to take Oktisi students to Jagodica. This resulted in 70% drop of Oktisi students attending school, mainly because the families cannot afford paying for transportation of their children.

We strongly believe that the local council should take immediate actions in order to provide transportation for the students because the legal obligation of the council is not fulfilled and the children right for free education is violated (http://thelawofeducation).

After providing a bus we will fight for reopening the school which is possible to happen on September 2013.

Here is the promotional vidio of Prozorcic Group

Press conference in Jagodica

Activist group Prozorcic held a press conference today in Jagodica media’s center and we presented the problem of dropping school in Oktisi village and solutions we are suggesting for this issue. “We know how big this problem is and we decided to take some actions to help residents of Oktisi village in providing bus transportation for students who need to travel to Jagodica school.”  said spokesperson of Prozorcic, Monika Ashtalkoska.

We presented also our promotional video which was posted earlier on this blog and you can watch the hole press conference here.  

Prozorcic in media (press clipping) - http://prozorcic-press-conference-today-in-Jagodica

                                                          

Public forum in Oktisi

The public forum for Oktisi citizens presented the issue of the school closing in their village. With this occasion we told them about the petition (sign it online! http://petition-for-Oktisi-school) that we want to hand in to the mayor one week later.

In the beginning some residents didn’t understand how this issue affects their lives, but we explained them that if their children don’t go to school they are loosing their chance to apply for job in the future. As a consequence the state will have to give them financial support for living and those costs are five till ten times bigger than providing one bus for students. To make this issue closer to them, we showed them a video made by Prozorcic group where we explained details about this issue.

Demonstration: We Support Others

Prozorcic activist group participated in the water pipe protest which was held yesterday in front of the City Hall in Targu Mures. We supported other groups because we want to provide clean water in this town. People from this town don’t have clean water for three years, although local authorities promised them that they will provide it in the first year of their mandate. Local authorities will start working on this problem tomorrow and completely solve it after the election period, said mayor of Targu Mures, Florin Ionescu.

     

You can also enjoy the creativity of Targu Mures Mayor’s office, The Local News Paper (which is also heavily funded by Mayor’s office) and Communist Party Newsletter, and their ways of describing one and the same event (http://targu-mures-demonstration-articles)

The last article is was written by the activist group, organizing the demonstration and you can see striking difference between it and other interpretation of the demonstration:

Demonstration in Targu Mures: First Vote, Then Drink Water

Our activist group from Targu Mures organized a protest today in front of the City Hall demanding clean water in our town. We gathered one hundred people who have been suffering for 3 years because the lack of the water. Local authorities will start working on this problem tomorrow, promised mayor of Targu Mures, Florin Ionescu.

Ionescu wasn’t willing to speak with us, but we were persistent so he came out and try to convince us to go home. When he realized that we won’t give up, he invited us in his office and start negotiating the problem.

The documents written by experts from the Institute for health, which show that there is a possibility to solve the problem, and documents were given to him. Activist group also reminded him that there is money in the local budget for this project.

“We relocated the money for school project and now we don’t have it in our budget. But we will solve this problem after the election period” said Ionescu.

This problem has existed for three years in this town, reminded spokesperson of this group Liviu Cernea, and he add that local authorities promised that they will solve it in a first year of their mandat.

Our group already have prepared a petition for this cause which was assigned by 30.000 people and it was sent to the mayor one month ago. Since then there has been no response from him.

If the mayor doesn’t start working on this problem tomorrow group of activists will paralize whole town and organize even bigger protest. Of course, they don’t have patient anymore so they won’t wait the end of the elections process, emphasized Cernea.   

Prozorcic: Finally Meeting Mirkovic

 

 
After a series of unreturned calls and ananswered mail, our group finally got a chance to meet the mayor of Oktisi Dragan Mirkovic in person. Prozorcic spokesperson Monika Ashtalkovska, legal advisor Katarina Jovovic and educational expert Masha Konstantinovic pointed out that the desision 28/2009 of the local council of Oktisi, which was signed by the mayor, was not implemented because of the lack of mayor's responsibility.

The mayor of Oktisi and the mayor of Jagodica who was also present at the meeting tried to convince us that the public bus that leaves for Jagodica to Oktisi every morning is working perfectly fine for the students. The number of students who dropped the school, however, shows the opposite. Most of the families simply cannot afford public bus, while the local budget for education has money reserved enough money for regular free bus for school children. We were very clear that the local decision and the budget description (http://local-budget-oktisi, http://decision-28/2009)are the documents that the mayor should follow precisely; these documents show that it is mayor's responsibility to provide transport and that no excuses like "There is a public bus", "the money was relocated for other needs" will not work.

We also handed in the petition signed by 200 residents of Oktisi (http://petition-oktisi-school) and within thirty days we expect the answer from the mayor. Our persistence, constant pressure and sticking to the issue put the mayor in a dead end and we are sure that the answer would be positive. If not, we will go to higher insitutions that will monitor mayor's work and implementation of local council's decision regarding the problem of school closure.