July 6, 2016

Thank You To Our Supporters & Church

I, Filip Filipi founded 28. Jun 5 years ago because there was no other Serbian humanitarian organization around in the diaspora which I could have joined. Everyone told me I was crazy because our people are impossible to unite. Everyone was wrong.

Here is what we have done over the past 5 years:

We managed to acquire 170 tons of humanitarian, medical and disaster relief aid worth over $4.4 mil and deliver it to Serbs all over the the Western Balkans

We coordinated youth fundraisers and awareness events in over 120 cities, across 30 countries which raised over $250,000 then used to transport our aid

We led the #NoKosovoUnesco digital campaign advocating NO vote on Kosovo UNESCO membership; amassing 140,000 petition signatures and 100,000 viral video views

We engineered marketing campaigns which attracted over 500,000 followers to our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and mailing list giving us the largest database of Serbs in the world

We directed the airlift of 30,000 lbs of urgent humanitarian relief directly into Belgrade from Toronto during the 2014 Southeast Europe floods

And finally last month WE presented at the pinnacle event of humanitarian work; the UN’s first ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, alongside 2000 of the world’s top humanitarians, in a list which included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Angela Merkel, the presidents, ministers and ambassadors of over 150 countries and the leaders of every large humanitarian organization in the world.

We DID this together. Our VP Milo Dubak from Chicago and his entire family worked 14 hour days to load containers during the floods in 2014. Our UK coordinator Relja Ilic was helping send relief aid for flood victims the morning after his mother died. Our global ambassador Marko Racic organized a dozen humanitarian events in the Toronto area as his mother was battling terminal cancer. Sasa and Aleksandra Guculj took 2 months off work to see that all material aid from North America was properly delivered to people in need on the ground. Aleksandra was recovering from a car accident which she didn’t tell me about until all the aid was loaded onto containers. Our European coordinator Petar Grabez and Marko Petrovic stayed up 72 hours after the floods hit to head our communications center and coordinate our efforts in Europe before waking up and proceeding to go load containers themselves. Our coordinator for Germany Aleks Naum, paid for 2 containers for Republika Srpska out of his own pocket after we had exhausted all funds because we had just paid for an airplane from Toronto and sent 8 containers via ship before any other organization sent even one. Our members Tamara Hadzi-Pavlovic and Stana Dubajic spent their entire winter and spring holidays doing humanitarian deliveries instead of seeing their families and enjoying their vacation time. Marko Sejat invested 100s of hours designing all the artistic material we used to create our base and personally mailed out 1000 posters all over the world for the ‘Boj za Kosovo’ campaign before the organization had a single donation. Ceca Radmanovic, Diana Todic, Neven Vujinovic, Ana Zivkovic, Aleksandra Orbovic, Branka and Mile Celap, Marko Karac, Andrej Babic, Jovana Magazin and Daniel Jankovic worked tirelessly organizing events in Canada, as did Amanda Andjelov, Dusanka Barisic, Jovana Zelenbaba, Nenad Arcaba, Milica Miocinovic, Stefan Popovic, Nikolina Dzinkic and Marko Lipar in Australia. As did Marina Kuzmanovic, Filip Dzafic, Stefan Sofronijevic, Katarina Duvnjak, Marija Karlicic, Dijana Loncar, Djordje Savanovic, Danilo Lesnjak in Europe and as did Dusko Kuzmanovic, Aleksandar Rakic, Igor Maric, Nina and Dusan Matic, and Andrija Stanojcic in America. Those who supported us over the years; Boris Malagurski, Dule Vicovac, Milinko Filipovic, Ivana Andjelkovic, Zvezdana Scott, Lana Matijevic, Jelena Vujovic, Kristina Pavlovic, LP Corbett and Ubavka. Our former members who I worked to death, their contribution will always be remembered; Suzana Bicanin, Kosovka Spreco, Tara Garic, Juliana Pandurevic, Jovan Subotic and especially Nikola Peric. And finally our coordinator for France who passed away in May, Sofija Buckvicki, rest in Peace.

However we could have not done this without the entire Serbian diaspora and the eternal guardian of the Serbian people; the Serbian Orthodox Church. I expressed this to his Holiness Patriarch Irinej in person yesterday. Thank you everyone – and we look forward to making you proud over the next 5 years!

Filip Filipi Jankovic,
28. Jun President