Due to the Kosovo police incursion in the north, the Soup kitchen users scared to go for meals

The Soup Kitchen in North Mitrovica is the only place where social assistance beneficiaries can receive meals daily. The latest incursion of the Kosovo police in the north caused fear among users who anxiously pass through Bosniak Mahala to the Soup Kitchen to get their meals.

Director of the Center for Social Work, Sonja Obradovic, tells Kosovo Online that the number of users coming to get food has decreased in recent days and that people are scared because of the large presence of the police on the streets.

"We distribute about fifty meals a day to about thirty of the most vulnerable families. Fear is present among the users, so their attendance at the Soup Kitchen is declining. Our workers go to their home addresses to bring them food," Obradovic said.

Food for the users is prepared by the Student Center, and the Soup Kitchen is financed from the Provisional Authority budget, thanks to which the kitchen operates despite the difficult conditions.

Vladan Jovanovic, who works at the Center for Social Work, points out that the escalation of violence and the increased number of police officers create tensions among the North Mitrovica residents.

"Our arrival at work has turned from a nice feeling of coming to work into a horror movie. All this escalation of the area and the increased number of police officers from South Mitrovica creates tensions both among the people and the population as well as us employees because we are engaged in work, not as a service for citizens, but we are doing humanitarian work. We cover the territories of six municipalities, Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, Istok, Orahovac, Pec, and Klina, so our users are afraid that something will happen to them, which is why we try to distribute meals to them every day," Jovanovic explained.

One of the users who was waiting for her meals today, Snezana Kostic, says that she is scared and wants peace and that she does not understand why there are so many policemen on the North Mitrovica streets.

"I pass a large number of policemen on my way to the Soup Kitchen and I am scared. I am not free to go to the kitchen. I don't know what they want from us. Let the people live as they should, may Saint Nicholas help everyone, including me and my daughter. I wish everyone to be well, and that we don't live in fear. I wish for freedom and peace and that we no longer pass by these policemen," Kostic said.

Zoran Zivkovic, who as a cook distributes meals to beneficiaries of social assistance, says that he does not recall a situation like this.

"I've been doing this job for 18 years. I don't remember a situation like this, now it is the most difficult time for people who are coming to the kitchen. Many of them don't come to collect their meals out of fear," Zivkovic told us.