We are a national association of parents of children suffering from cancer, made up of parents, doctors, medical staff and all people of good will," they say in the About Us section of the official website. Parents whose children were treated for malignant diseases 20 years ago came up with the idea of founding NURDOR, as our interlocutor and legal and PR advisor at NURDOR, Tamara Klarić, says, with one goal - "so that no family has to go through it the way they had to: alone." Today, NURDOR consists of the board of directors - the founding parents, and in addition to them, eleven more employees in Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad. When asked how they succeeded and what she considers the greatest value of NURDOR, Tamara says - togetherness.
Tamara states that the biggest and most successful project of NURDOR so far is the design, construction and equipping of the new children's hemato-oncology hospital in Nis. It is equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment, each room has its own bathroom and a bed for the parent, and in addition, what is perhaps the most significant, there is the possibility of applying humane therapy - children receive chemotherapy while they play.
,"Today, it is the most modern institution for this purpose in the Balkans, built entirely thanks to donations from companies and citizens." In 2018, NURDOR completed and donated the hospital to the Niš Clinical Center. It also states that, so far, almost 1,000 families have passed through the organization. The latest and currently the largest Parents' House project in Belgrade was launched, as he says, because there is not enough capacity for families in Belgrade, which is the largest therapeutic and diagnostic center in Serbia. "This will be the largest Parents' House in Serbia, which will enable every family that comes to Belgrade for treatment to be provided with free and adequate accommodation for as long as the treatment lasts."”
As the biggest obstacles that the organization, as well as the families they are in contact with, encounter, they are mostly of an administrative and legal nature, which, especially for families, represent "a completely unnecessary additional burden on the already unimaginably difficult situation they are in". However, in most cases, they manage to cope with the bureaucratic system, "which is so sluggish and slow that it often seems to be working against itself". On the initiative of NURDORA, in 2019, after six years of struggle, the law on health insurance was changed and parents of seriously ill children were given the right to sick leave for the entire duration of treatment with 100 percent of salary compensation, while the previous practice was only four months of sick leave with 60 percent compensation. They also managed to fight for the children's right to free rehabilitation after treatment. However, he states that the lack of a pediatric cancer registry in Serbia, an information system for data analysis, which would greatly help the monitoring of all data, the number of patients and those cured, short-term and long-term consequences of treatment and therapy, etc., remains an unresolved problem. Although NURDOR has been advocating for this for years without results, "We will continue this struggle, with the never-forsaken hope that the institutions will recognize that what we are advocating for is only change for the better." For all of us", says Tamara.
When asked if she thinks that their actions reach a "sufficient" number of people and if it is difficult to reach them today, she replied that she can always do better and that it would be great if every adult in Serbia knew about NURDOR, not because of the increase in popularity, but because in that way we would have a sanctified society. ,,...I am sure that never, in any era that humanity will go through, you will not find a person who does not feel good when he does Good. You just need to offer people that opportunity, to design way and give them the opportunity to see that it really makes sense. If we succeed in that - then Good becomes power." I also agree with Tamara. Everyone around me, myself included, was picking up the pace and feeling good.
Our interlocutor describes NURDOR in one sentence with a quote from Margaret Maed: "Never underestimate the possibility that a small group of dedicated people can change the world." After all, they are the only ones who have done it so far." However, I would like to end this story about NURDOR, these endlessly inspiring people and their selfless goal and importance, as Tamara says and tells, with a short anecdote: "One little princess, who celebrated her third birthday in the NURDOR parent's house, returned to her city with her parents after a successful operation and treatment. After a few days, her mother noticed that she was sad and asked what was wrong with her, and she replied: "I would like to go home to Belgrade."”
