Novi Sad Voluntary Service is a winner of the National Volunteer Award, due to their great contribution to facing the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The award is given by the Responsible Business Forum and Smart Kolektiv individuals, companies and organisations who were prominent in the field of volunteering during the last year.

The expert jury, including representative of a civil, state and business sector, selected those who were prominent in volunteering with their activities, contribution, and involvement during the last year.

The award was given to NVS on the CSR forum, which organised the Forum for responsible business with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development, within which 19 companies have been awarded; the ones that pursued excellence in continuous donation of food for the most vulnerable citizens, contribution to the fight against poverty and contribution to the achievement of goals of sustainable development.

The Novi Sad Voluntary Service was launched as a joint platform of the two projects – European Capital of Culture and European Youth Capital. The NVS played a key role in offering support to citizens in order to prevent spreading of the COVID-19, thus accomplishing almost 4000 voluntary hours, with 667 engaged volunteers. They were engaged in procurement of food, medicines, and groceries for fellow citizens older than 65 years, in direct cooperation with the Red Cross. They participated in setting up a temporary COVID hospital at Novi Sad Fair, in direct cooperation with the Serbian Armed Forces, as well as offering the support for the poor and preparing more than 20,000 packages for pensioners in Novi Sad. Their effort and work were crowned by the traditional October award last year.

You can read about work of the NVS, success and challenges in the interview with Vojislav Prkosovački, the coordinator of the NVS.

Photo: Vladimir Veličković