The power of a child’s joy is precious. It sparks its imagination, curiosity and talent. That’s why we believe it’s worth our perseverance and work. To us, every child matters.
For a child to use its full potential, it needs an opportunity to develop its physical readiness, literacy, emotional intelligence, social and cognitive skills. However, not all children have such opportunities due to a lack of financial resources. That’s why our team provides donations and a learning experience that can help change that.
As a way of celebrating certain important world dates, we organize interactive events full of physical, creative and educational activities for children to enjoy in the company of their peers. Such events do not only help them develop necessary skills but also create joyful memories that last a lifetime.
We create a stimulating early learning environment by building or renovating preschools and equipping them with new toys, books and didactic material. Thanks to our close cooperation with local authorities, each new preschool place that we open will benefit all future generations in that local community.
In Serbia, only every fourth child from rural households has access to preschool education.*
There are not enough preschools, and those that do exist are usually in a very bad infrastructural condition with outdated equipment, because local authorities in these areas are particularly faced with financial challenges.
With a motivation to change this statistic for the better, since 2013, we have been implementing the project Schools of Life. Our aim is to provide access to quality preschool education to children from rural areas aged 3 to 5.5 years who, until now, for various reasons, were in no way included in one of the preschool programs.
The project was created under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.
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We create a stimulating early learning environment by building or renovating preschools and equipping them with new toys, books and didactic material. Thanks to our close cooperation with local authorities, each new preschool place that we open will benefit all future generations in that local community.
Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care project is a joint effort between the Novak Djokovic Foundation, the World Bank, and the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development. Once completed, it will have granted access to at least 3,000 children to preschool education.
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By participating in sports, children are exposed to various mental, social, emotional, physical and educational benefits. Given our founder’s ambassadorial role as one of the Champions for peace of the Peace and Sport organization and his active participation in the establishment of the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace by the UN, encouraging children to be more physically active is a very important part of our work. Therefore, every year on the 6th of April, we organize various sports activities for children that nurture teamwork, fair play, peace and diversity.
Books are an essential part of life, and literacy is a basic human right. We want children everywhere to fall in love with literature because we know that reading means learning, learning means freedom, and freedom means endless possibilities. So in honor of World Book Day, every year we donate books to children all over Serbia. Because every child deserves to discover the books that make their souls soar and the texts that will enable their dreams to crystallize into reality. Besides our donations, we actively work on raising awareness about the long-term benefits of reading at an early age.
The celebration of the winter holidays is a time of joy and wonder, a time for family, belonging, and love. However, for many children in Serbia, this time of year is also often a time of sadness, as it serves as a poignant reminder that things are not quite as they should be. Every year we try to do something special for children who have experienced certain difficulties: children in foster care, whose families are beneficiaries of social security, children from Roma minorities, and patients at children’s hospitals. We organize games and theatre plays, we sing and even welcome Santa Claus to spend time with them. All children receive New Year’s presents full of books, toys, didactic material, clothes, and hygiene products.
No child in Serbia should be deprived of the wonders of childhood.
Support our initiatives and give them life-long memories.
Helping a child develop into a responsible, kind and healthy adult who uses his/her full potential is no easy. But do not worry, we are here to support you!
Check out our Early Years Blog for great articles on various early childhood development topics.
The NDF works with partners from all over the world to achieve our goal of quality early development for all children in Serbia.
