“In cooperation with Sisak-Moslavina County and County Prefect Celjak, we have decided to have almost all fourth-graders from Sisak-Moslavina County, nearly 1,300 of them, come here to swim and spend their holidays, and we will organise trips to islands and archaeological sites for interested children,” said Split-Dalmatia County Prefect Blaženko Boban earlier this week.
He recalled that 50 children from Sisak-Moslavina County had spent their summer holidays at the Red Cross camp in Okrug last year, that Split-Dalmatia County had also helped to reconstruct the “Ivan Goran Kovačić” primary school near Petrinja, that their first responders had gone to Banovina to help repair the damage immediately after the earthquake in December 2020.
Boban underscored that Split-Dalmatia County had also received help from others, from all over Croatia, during the big fire in the Split area in 2017, last year’s big flood in Kokorići near Vrgorac and the recent flood in Dicmo in the Dalmatian hinterland.
Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivan Celjak stressed that the devastating earthquake in Banovina had left many children without their childhood, memories and home.
“A summer holiday at the seaside for 1,300 children is a great relief for their parents because many children will see the sea for the first time and get away from everyday life in the quake-hit area for at least those five days,” said Celjak.
He said that the contract on the summer holiday in Split-Dalmatia County for pupils from Banovina was the best Christmas gift for those children.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the post-earthquake reconstruction, Celjak said he would only be satisfied once the very last inhabitant moves from a housing container to a solid, safe and warm building.
He recalled that the Croatian government had provided 2,200 containers immediately after the earthquake. After that, more mobile facilities were provided for temporary accommodation, he said, expressing regret that many people were still in such temporary housing solutions.
“The government has provided state-owned flats, Sisak-Moslavina County has recently renovated county-owned flats and made them available, and 270 people have been provided with winter accommodation at the Topusko spa,” Celjak said, expressing surprise that only 15 people had applied for accommodation in Topusko.
He said there was also very little interest in accommodation in a facility in the municipality of Sunja, where Sisak-Moslavina County and the state-run Hrvatske Šume forest management company had renovated a facility for people who had lost their homes in the earthquake.
