On June 16, 2021, the City of Sremska Mitrovica and the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organization signed an Memorandum on mutual cooperation in the implementation of the EHO project "Assistance for a New Start". The Memorandum was signed by Mayor Svetlana Milovanović and EHO Director Ana Brtka Valent, in the City Hall in the presence of the Head of Social Protection and Environmental Protection Dražen Riđošić and Project coordinator Ana Birgeš, as well as local media.

This Memorandum represents an additional improvement of already established forms of cooperation of signatories and will enable efficient implementation of project goals regarding beneficiaries of various types of support from the territory of the City of Sremska Mitrovica, as well as adoption of good practice models and improvement of existing local policies and practices regarding housing, employment and reintegration of  (Roma) returnees from Germany and other Western European countries.

As part of the project, on the territory of the City of Sremska Mitrovica, assistance was approved for 16 families in the form of construction materials for the improvement of their own homes, as well as for 4 persons in the form of tools for self-employment. After signing the contracts with the beneficiaries, the delivery of construction materials for the renovation of houses, as well as tools for self-employment, will follow.

The project "Assistance for a New Start" lasts until November 30, 2021.  The services provided are supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH under the Migration for Development (PME) Programme. The Programme is part of the global initiative “Returning to New Opportunities” of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).