THE CHILDREN’S HOME IN TSRIKVENITSA

THE CHILDREN’S HOME IN TSRIKVENITSA

A home for the refugee children from Aegean Macedonia was opened on November 13, 1948 in the town Tsrikvenitsa, located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in the People’s Republic of Croatia. The home consisted of several buildings with adequate accommodations and inventory made available by the Ministry of Social Welfare and by the Croatian Red Cross Main Board.

The children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa began to operate in mid-November 1948, with the admission of 519 refugee children, both boys and girls. The actual home housed 296 children while 223 children were placed in hotels in Tsrikvenitsa. There were 16 women “mothers” who cared for the children as well as several young ladies who came to Tsrikvenitsa with them from their villages. The accommodations and care of the children in this home were well-organized. In addition to receiving regular health care and quality food, the children were engaged in various physical fitness

activities and were regularly trained. This was well reflected by the numerous statements made by members of delegations who visited this home and wrote their comments in the home’s journal.

At the end of November 1948 115 more children were placed in Tsrikvenitsa. These children were transferred here by the Red Cross from the children’s homes in the People’s Republic of Slovenia. The children were accompanied by 16 women who had come with them from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia. Then in January 1949 114 more children were taken to Tsrikvenitsa and placed in the children’s home in Malinska. After that, in March 1949, 104 older children were sent to study a craft in Osiek, Krani, Novi Sad and Zagreb. Then 63 children were moved from Tsrikvenitsa to children’s homes in the People’s Republic of Slovenia.

The number of children housed in the Tsrikvenitsa home in May 1949 was 328. The number of children housed in homes for apprentices in the People’s Republic of Slovenia, the People’s Republic of Croatia, the People’s Republic of Serbia and the Autonomous Province Voivodina was 254, of which 150 were male and 104 female.

In mid-June 1949, at the request of the Croatian Red Cross Main Board, a children’s home was opened in Gerovo which housed 49 children. These children came from the Malinska home after it was closed. Similarly from a total of 80 children from the Tsrikvenitsa home, 35 children went to Gerovo, 59 were Macedonian and 21 Greek.

After the homes in Rovini and Malinska on Krk Island were closed, the only refugee homes for the refugee children from Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia, operating in People’s Republic of Croatia, were the two children’s homes, one in Tsrikvenitsa and the other in Gerovo. The children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa accommodated 496 children while the home in Gerovo looked after 80 refugee children. In 1949 the total number of refugee children from Aegean Macedonia living in the People’s Republic of Croatia was 576.

At the end of September 1949, 21 children from the children’s home in Gerovo were transferred to children’s homes in Skopje, while

another 59 were moved and placed in the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa. Because the home in Rovini had no children at the end of September 1949, it was closed down.

SATISFACTION FROM VICTORY

In early September 1949, at the beginning of the new academic year, the 8 existing Greek teachers were replaced with new ones. As for the Macedonian students, qualified professional teachers were sent from the People’s Republic of Macedonia to teach them in the Macedonian literary language.

The following teachers taught at the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa:

Petar Markovski, Risto Popovski, Veselinka Ivanovska, Viktoria Trpkova, Dushanka Chuguntsalieva, Nada Levkova, Vera Mamkova and Stoian Popovski.

Risto Popovski was appointed school trustee.

The Macedonian refugee children were taught in the Macedonian language in accordance with the curriculum applied in the People’s Republic of Macedonia. The students were also supplied with relevant educational materials that included textbooks, school supplies and other materials in the Macedonian language.

In mid-September 1949 the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa was visited by Penko Zdravkovski, Government Secretary in the People’s Republic of Macedonia, Risto Iankulovski, President of the Aegean Committee, and Aegean Committee members Vasilka Chosova, Filip Nikolovski, Vasilka Divkova and Tome Krstovski. During the same month the home was also visited by Inspector Blagoia Kondarko from the People’s Republic of Macedonia’s Ministry of Education.

Additionally the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa was visited by several delegations and responsible officials from the People’s Republic of Croatia and the Yugoslav Red Cross.

In mid-September 1949 139 children from Tsrikvenitsa and 21 children from Gerovo were moved to Skopje. After the home in Gerovo closed down the remaining 59 children were moved to Tsrikvenitsa.

In late October 1949 another 63 children were sent to Skopje to be educated in the economic sector.

So at the end of 1949 the Red Cross run Tsrikvenitsa children’s home housed 219 refugee children.

In late May 1950 the children’s home in Dutovlie, People’s Republic of Slovenia, sent 122 school age children to the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa and another 51 children to the Red Cross homes in Bela Tsrkva, in order for the children to continue their education in the “Kolishevski” Macedonian high school.

In 1951 there were 213 school age children in the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa who attended classes in the Macedonian elementary school.

In early April 1952 the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa was closed down. Soon afterwards other Red Cross children’s homes in the People’s Republic of Slovenia and the People’s Republic of Croatia were also closed down. The reason for this was a shortage of children due to the massive repatriation of these children with their parents. After the numbers decreased considerably, those children who remained were moved to the children’s home in the Bela Tsrkva.

In mid-March 1949 50 children were transferred from the children’s home in Tsrikvenitsa to Zagreb in order for them to learn a trade. Of the 50, 35 were Macedonian and 15 Greek. In mid-September 1949 15 young people were sent from Zagreb to Skopje and 4 were sent from Tsrikvenitsa to Zagreb to learn a trade.