From January 1 to December 31, 2022. associates of the Info Center provided 373 services total: 269 information services, 83 referral services on other institutions, establishments, organizations and support services and 21 legal counselor consultations.
Among the beneficiaries that received services in 2022. by the Info Center, 82% of them were women (65% without disabilities and 35% with disabilities – physical, sensory, mental, combined or chronic illness) and 18% were men (57% without disabilities and 43% with disabilities – physical, sensory and combined). Persons without disabilities in most cases addressed the Info Center to get information about rights and benefits for family members with disabilities (calls from parents of children with physical, mental and intellectual disabilities, calls from children of parents with disabilities, media representatives, institutions and NGOs).
In this period, the associates of the Info Center provided the most information services (269) about rights in the field of pension and disability insurance (conditions to meet to exercise the right to maternity leave, increased financial compensation for assistance and care of another person, rights on old age and disability pension, right to financial compensation for physical damage, rights of veterans, employment of persons with disabilities and the criteria for assessing working ability); social protection (conditions for obtaining compensation for kinship foster care, adoption procedure, in-home health and care service, exercising the right to personal assistance, submission of the requests for the issuance of a parking sticker for persons with disabilities); health protection (information about communities’ post parturition support services for women with disabilities, scheduling gynecological preventive exams for women with disabilities) and employment regulation (information about benefits for employers in cases of hiring persons with disabilities, termination of employment and the right to annual leave after maternity leave).
Apart from providing information, (83) referral services on other institutions, establishments, organizations and support services were made (police, social welfare center, Women’s safe house, Center for family placement and adoption, Pension-disability Fund, National Employment Service, Bureau for Providing Legal Aid, Social Protection Chamber, Community Health Center, Clinical Center of Vojvodina, Constellation of Support, SOS Women’s Center, National Organization of persons with Disabilities (NOOIS), Daun association, City Organization of Blind and Visually Impaired Persons Novi Sad, Living Upright association, Citizens Association Patria, Center Srce and other NGOs, institutions, psychological support services and legal aid services).
Legal consultations (21) referred to the provision of support in exercising the right to medical-technical aids, realizing the right to increased cash compensation for assistance and care of another person, maternity leave pay, the right to salary compensation during maternity leave and leave from work to tend for a disabled child.
Most beneficiaries addressed the center via phone (187), messages via Facebook, Instagram, Viber, SMS, mail (103), or by coming to the premises of the organization personally (7). Communication by phone is still the most efficient way for most Info Center users to obtain fast and reliable information, especially when it comes to users who do not use the Internet and social networks often.
Beneficiaries from urban areas addressed the Info Center more often (92%) compared to the ones from rural areas (8%). In addition to a large number of callers from Vojvodina (Backa Palanka, Backi Jarak, Begec, Veternik, Kikinda, Ledinci, Novi Sad, Opovo, Pancevo, Subotica, Stepanovicevo, Sirig, Temerin), calls from other places from Serbia have been recorded (Beograd, Valjevo, Vranje, Vrnjacka Banja, Krusevac, Lazarevac, Nis, Raska, Takovo, Uzice, Cacak) and from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Poland and an Estonian university capital – Tartu.
The services of The Info Center are available to beneficiaries every work day from 9-16 by calling 066/447-040 (phone call, Viber, SMS), via mail office@izkrugavojvodina.org, Facebook account @izkrugavojvodina and Instagram account @iz_kruga_vojvodina.
In 2022. the work of The Info Center was supported by the Dutch foundation MamaCash and the Women’s Reconstruction Fund.
