After Zajecar and Sjenica, the sensory room in Kovacica is the third we opened this year. Multi-sensory rooms are particularly important in creating the best possible ambiance for the treatment of developmentally impaired children.
Through our significant partnership with The Human Safety Net and Generali Insurance Serbia, we opened the first multi-sensory room in Kovacica. The resources for this rather important type of support were collected during a global humanitarian challenge co-led by the Foundation and the employees of Generali Insurance Serbia, within their global initiative The Human Safety Net. Additionally, having recognized the importance of such rooms, Generali Insurance contributed with additional financial aid in order to collect sufficient funds for the three planned rooms.
A sensory room is a special space designed to develop one’s senses, usually through special lighting, music, and/or objects. It is often used as a therapy for children with limited communication skills. There are multiple types of sensory rooms and purposes for use that have been created and implemented in different practice areas. When used appropriately, sensory rooms help create a safe space; expedite the therapeutic alliance; provide opportunities for engagement in prevention and crisis de-escalation strategies & promote self-care/self-nurturance, recovery, and resilience.
A sensory room is a special space designed to develop one’s senses, usually through special lighting, music, and/or objects.
“One of our Foundation’s driving motives and stances is that all children can develop their full potential – with the right support from the earliest age. We believe in the future of every child in Serbia, and consider it important for all of us. By furnishing this multisensory space in Kovacica, we are providing the best possible conditions for a pleasant childhood, development, learning, and creating without limitations. We wish you to use this sensory room and props we chose together in the best possible way to achieve these goals and provide daily joy and learning opportunities,” said Maja Kremic, National Director at Novak Djokovic Foundation.
“Sensory rooms represent a very important basis for stimulating a crucial component of child development, such as gross and fine motor skills, sense of balance and space, as well as of the body. This has been determined by numerous studies and practices over the last decades, which underlines our expectations that learning and a wide range of useful everyday activities in this space will become more available and provide desired results for our children. We would also like to express our happiness with the opening of this sensory room for children in Kovacica and the surrounding area – and the firm belief that – with your dedicated work – our donation will contribute to a happy, substantive childhood of the little ones and their families,” added Smiljana Grujic, Chief Programme Manager at Novak Djokovic Foundation.
Smiljana Grujic and Maja Kremic.
“As part of Generali’s humanitarian initiative””The Human Safety Net, we have been supporting the work of our partner, Novak Djokovic Foundation, for nearly four years, as well as supporting parents and children throughout Serbia. In line with that, the opening of Parent Centres in 10 cities in Serbia, as well as additional furnishing of three sensory rooms, with this being the third, will help children with sensory disabilities and teach them to develop their senses and cognitive abilities. This way, we support parents and ensure a nicer childhood and better chances in the future for children,” said Ingrid Dumitraskovic of Generali osiguranje Srbija.
As soon as the epidemiological situation allows for it, the SNP workshops will move from Zoom to Parent Centers.
“Thanks to the readiness of the Novak Djokovic Foundation and its partners to help us, we are able to open a sensory room in Kovacica today, which will help all the children in our municipality with sensory disabilities, as well as children on the autism spectrum and children with sensory deficiencies, mental disabilities and speech impediments, learning disabilities and behavioural disorders, develop the sensory skills that they will need in life, improve coordination and improve communication skills, allow children who are always active to relax and release tension, and help less active children focus. I thank everyone who contributed to ensuring that our wards, as well as all the children with the listed disabilities from our municipality, can develop their potentials by spending time in and using all the benefits of the sensory room,” said Dusanka Petrak, Kovacica Social Services Centre director.
Other important projects on which the partners have worked this year include 9 Parent Centers, donation of 42 tablet devices to child institutions, as well as the new season of the internationally recognized Support, NOT perfection program.
NDF Team with Generali employees’ toys.
Generali Insurance Serbia employees led a great initiative, in which they collected 3,000 toys which found their way to children in our Caravan of Happiness.
With the opening of the multisensory room in Kovacica, by the same partners – in the Daycare for persons with disabilities at the Kovacica Social Services Centre, the aforementioned partners have completed another successful year and announced the strengthening of their years-long cooperation in 2022 as well. Proud of our cooperation and teamwork, we will continue to make happy as many children as possible in 2022.
