Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

For the past two and a half years Aleksa Živković has been using his bike to help senior citizens older than 70, pay their bills, buy groceries and medicine, and make their doctor’s appointments. Soon, when the construction of the rickshaw is done, he and his fellow volunteer will be able to take them to their doctor’s appointments as well.

He came to this idea of helping the elderly spontaneously, by surfing the Internet and becoming familiar with courier services. However, what was crucial was his desire to do something nice and at the same time useful, get away from his computer and just be active. Today this young man is known throughout Pirot as “Potrčko” meaning errand boy. The help he provides for the elderly by paying their bills, doing their grocery shopping and bringing their medicine from the pharmacy, not only made him famous in town but it also earned him numerous awards and recognitions. One of those recognitions is being one of the “Ten exceptional young people in Serbia for 2015”.

In the meantime, he registered his civil society organization “Leka” whose mission is to inspire young people to help seniors and make their everyday life easier.

“Unofficially, I started working in November 2012. I invited my Facebook friends to tell their grandparents that I would do their errands and that they could pay me whatever they want or can. In the beginning, they were not very interested. I had more work coming from office workers, so I mostly delivered ice creams and watermelons. The elderly were sceptical, and some organisations were even spreading rumours that I was a thief”, this resourceful and hardworking young man from Pirot recalls all the difficulties he had in the beginning. Despite the offers he had to leave his country, this ex-handball player decided to stay.

A few months later, with the “Youth for the elderly” project the usefulness of his endeavour was finally recognized and he started collaborating with the Red Cross and the town hall. Delivery for the elderly became free of charge. In the first year Aleksa recorded about 120 deliveries for five of his grey-haired fellow citizens. Besides him, two other volunteers completed the errands the elderly could not do for themselves. The following year number of services increased to 313, and the number of users to 9.

At the moment, Aleksa is preparing for the next phase of his project. With three of his colleges – a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer and an energetics engineer – he is working on constructing a rickshaw.

“It would have to be driven by two volunteers and it would be used to transport the programme users to their specialist examinations. We are building it thanks to the prize and donation from the “Social Impact Award” programme and we hope it will be up and running before the winter comes”, Aleksa explains.

“This also represents a new dimension of the existing service, it is environmentally friendly and it will help increase the ambulance capacity.”

The plan is for everything to be finished by the spring of 2016, and there is hope there won’t be just one rickshaw.

For now, he rides his bike around Pirot and covers up to 200 kilometres per week. The oldest person who uses his services is 89. One elderly lady said that she was very happy with his services and that she wished she had someone like that helping her at home.

From his improvised “trunk” on his bike or from his backpack he usually delivers bread, milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables, medicine or laundry. He doesn’t find it difficult to go to different stores in order to buy more things for less money.

Some of the awards and recognitions he received for his endeavours are: “Young hero” from the “Exit” foundation, “Original idea in youth entrepreneurship”, “Local hero” for the Coca-Cola “Share the good” campaign, “Accomplishment of the year for 2014” from radio “Plus” and many more.

All of this, however, was not enough for some of his fellow citizens who ridiculed him and made false accusations.

“I learned from the ones closest to me to have low expectations, so I wouldn’t be disappointed by the experience, and I am now old enough to make my own happiness. Nevertheless, a lot of people know how to appreciate and recognize what I do, so good things brought other good things, and the good things just keep on coming – lessons on being patient taught me that the ultimate reward comes later.”

Even though this project takes up much of his time, he says that he is not sorry that he is now turning pedals not only for his own benefit but also for the good of others. He was very proud to add that for the past three years no other cyclist came close to beating his record for going down a nearby hill.

According to the last survey from 2011, Pirot has a little more than 38 thousand people living in it with every third person being older than 65.