As part of the Transitional Accommodation project, the JRS team has been successfully cooperating with beneficiaries who are students of higher education institutions for two years. By cooperation, we mean taking care of our adult beneficiary (who have successfully integrated into the local community, developed their contacts and are successfully completing their studies) through help in preparing seminar papers, applying for exams, or translating texts that are necessary for their further development and improvement.

In addition to two of our beneficiaries who were enrolled at the Faculty of Applied Arts (as first two persons with the status of refugees who managed to enroll in the faculty in Serbia), we had opportunity to enroll one more beneficiary in the college, to the educational profile that was his personal desire.

Namely, after finishing high school, the beneficiary was enrolled at the College of Health, majoring in occupational therapy. The beneficiary is originally from Guinea. Upon arrival at the transitional accommodation the beneficiary exhibited withdrawn behavior, it was difficult to establish communication with him and he was shy and uninterested in any kind of social interactions.

After getting to know the expert team, the beneficiary visibly relaxed and got closer to both the employees and other beneficiaries of the transitional accommodation. We managed to encourage his introverted nature through gentle communication with him and tried to motivate him by unobtrusively offering him help with his studies. Over time, he got rid of his fears and gained trust in our professional team, and thus expressed his desire regarding his interests and what he would like to study since he wants to stay in Serbia.

Working with this beneficiary paid off for us and we were able to help him achieve his wishes, primarily because he managed to enroll in the school of his choice, and he repaid us by not only going to school motivated, but also by passed three key subjects in the first exam period: Physiology, Anatomy, and Social Medicine.

There is no need to talk about how much progress he has made in terms of learning the Serbian language, precisely because he has learned a lot of new medical and professional terms that will benefit him not only in his knowledge of certain fields but also in his self-confidence through the establishment of interaction with professors and other students.