NURDOR: an association of parents fighting for children's smiles

"How many steps have you collected so far?"
I remember that this was the main thing that my friends and I discussed about for a few months in 2019. I don't even think I've ever tried so hard to walk and move around in my life as I did then. It was great to see how the steps taken using the app turn into money that "someone out there" invests where it should be invested.

If you haven't already, get to know NURDOR - "We make life easier for children with cancer and their closest by providing practical, emotional and material support. We are a national association of parents of children with cancer, made up of parents, doctors, medical staff and all people of good will", they say in the About us section of the official website. Parents whose children were treated for malignant diseases 20 years ago came up with an idea of founding NURDOR, as our interlocutor and Legal and PR advisor at NURDOR, Tamara Klaric, says, with one goal - "so that no family has to go through it the way they had to: by themselves." Today, NURDOR consists of the board of directors - the founding parents, and in addition to them, eleven other employees in Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad. When asked how they succeeded and what she considers the greatest value of NURDOR, Tamara says - togetherness.

Tamara states that the biggest and most successful project of NURDOR so far is the design, construction and equipping of the new children's hemato-oncology hospital in Niš. It is equipped with the most modern medical equipment, each room has its own bathroom and a bed for the parent, and in addition, what is perhaps the most important, there is the possibility of applying humane therapy - children receive chemotherapy while they play. 

"Today, it is the most modern institution for this purpose in the Balkans, built entirely thanks to donations from companies and citizens." In 2018, NURDOR completed and donated the hospital to the Niš Clinical Center. She also states that almost 1,000 families have passed through the organization in various activities so far. The latest and currently the largest project for the construction of the Parents' House in Belgrade was launched, as she says, precisely because there is not enough capacity to accommodate families in Belgrade, which is the largest therapeutic and diagnostic center in Serbia and where the majority of children actually come to be treated. . "This will be the largest Parent's House in Serbia, which will enable every family that comes to Belgrade for treatment to have free and adequate accommodation for as long as the treatment lasts."

As the biggest obstacles that the organization, as well as the families they are in contact with, encounter, she states that they are mainly of an administrative and legal nature, which, especially for families, represent "a completely unnecessary additional burden on the already unimaginably difficult situation in which they find themselves." . However, in most cases, they manage to cope with the bureaucratic system, ,,which is so sluggish and slow that it often seems to be working against itself.” On the initiative of NURDOR, in 2019, after six years of fight, the law on health insurance was amended and parents of seriously ill children were given the right to sick leave for the entire duration of treatment with 100 percent of salary compensation, while the previous practice was only four months of sick leave with 60 percent of the fee. They also managed to fight for the children's right to free rehabilitation after treatment. However, she states that the lack of a pediatric cancer registry in Serbia, an information system for data analysis, which would greatly help the monitoring of all data, the number of patients and those cured, short-term and long-term consequences of treatment and therapy, etc., remains an unresolved problem. Although NURDOR has been advocating for this for many years without results, "We will continue this fight, with the never-forsaken hope that the institutions will recognize that what we are advocating for is only a change for the better." For all of us.", says Tamara.

When asked if she thinks that their actions reach a "sufficient" number of people and if it is difficult to reach them today, she answered that it can always be better and that it would be great if every adult in Serbia knew about NURDOR, not because of the increase popularity, but because that way we would get a sanctified society. ,,...I am sure that you will never, in any era that humanity will go through, find a man who does not feel good when he does Good. You just have to offer people that possibility, devise a way and give them the opportunity to see that it really makes sense. If we succeed in that - then Good becomes power." I also agree with Tamara. Everyone around me, myself included, was collecting steps and feeling good. Our interlocutor describes NURDOR in one sentence with a quote from Margaret Maed: ,,Never underestimate the possibility that a small group of dedicated people can change the world. After all, they are the only ones who have done it so far." However, I would like to end this story about NURDOR, these endlessly inspiring people and their selfless goal and importance, as Tamara says and tells, with a short anecdote: "One little princess, who celebrated her third birthday in the NURDOR parent's house, after a successful operation and treatment, returned to her city with her parents. After a few days, mom noticed that she was sad and asked what was wrong with her, if she was in pain, and she replied: "I would like to go home to Belgrade."

​