In April 2023, Lazar Jovanović received EHO assistance for self-employment in the form of tools for cutting wood and mowing grass.

In 2014, Lazar went to Germany with his wife and sought asylum there. After more than a year, they returned to Serbia, and their daughter was born in Germany in the meantime.

Lazar is now 28 years old and lives in Popinci with his wife and 4 minor children. He does seasonal agricultural work, sometimes chopping wood or mowing the grass for a wage.

As he says, the tools he received from EHO, a new saw and trimmer, will allow him to work faster and better, get more jobs and earn more, and thus be able to support his children's education.

The assistance he received is intended for self-employment of returnees from Germany and other Western European countries, within the project "Assistance for a New Start".

The services EHO provided are supported, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, under the “Migration for Development” (PME) Programme.