UNMIK/PR/246
The Department of Health and Social Welfare has announced that the new programme to provide social assistance to the most vulnerable families in Kosovo will be launched in June. The scheme will be administered by the Centres for Social Work (CSWs) throughout Kosovo.
Evelyn Arnold and Muhamet Gjocaj, Deputy Co-directors of the Department of Heath and Social Welfare, explained that the programme is intended to provide assistance only to the most vulnerable families, that is those having no means of support or resources with which to survive.
The launching of this programme has been co-ordinated with the phasedown of humanitarian assistance in order to ensure that no truly needy families are left without the means to meet their basic needs. Strict criteria have been established for determining eligibility, and applicants will be required to provide written documentation of their conditions in order to be considered.
The new assistance programme will be implemented in two phases: the first, to begin in June, will provide a cash and food assistance package to households in which no member is capable of being employed (for example, elderly people, handicapped, or single-parent families). To be eligible for assistance, these families must also demonstrate that they have no other income or resources.
A second phase of the programme, to begin in Autumn 2000, will provide cash assistance to certain persons able to work but having no paid employment. More detailed eligibility criteria will be furnished before the second phase begins.
Application forms will be available from the Centres for Social Work beginning in June: The public is urged not to request these forms from the Centres until then. In the coming weeks, media messages will provide details to the public concerning eligibility criteria and procedures for applying. Persons who need help in completing application forms will be able to receive it from CSWs and from international and national organisations which will be supporting the Centres in the project start-up.