the year of 2000 will initially be remembered among my people as the year offear, filled with anxiety and uncertainty, but then by a great liberation and awakening of the hope.

People who seemed completely apathetic and seemingly beaten, showed and incredible transformation and in a glorious move simply effaced the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. To your inquiries as to why we did not get rid of Milosevic I would answer "because Serbs are peaceful people". I also would answer the question: "What is going to happen?" by my friend Irene, a journalist from the Swiss Radio with: "You never know what my people might do, you could be in for a big surprise." I can easily say that we were very surprised ourselves, as well as were the leaders of the opposition parties. The level of peacefulness with which "the October Revolution" was executed still seems hard to believe. The mood for changes was confirmed after the December elections for the Serbian Parliament and now we are finally starting to get a new government. Doing this is not that easy, because the previous regime destroyed many of the public instances, such as bureaucratic, cultural and judicial ones as well as the health care and the media... Left and right people were given positions based on their loyalty instead of their competence. It is difficult to get rid of this burden, especially without adopting the unpopular measures such as collective discharges from work.

A completely devastated country remained behind Slobodan Milosevic's regime, first of all economically speaking, but also politically speaking, a country with a tough inheritance which the new power is forced to deal with. The transition period is going to be very difficult and rather lengthy. How does that affect the elderly? Many of them will not live to see the good times. Their consolation is that there may be hope for their grandchildren. The current economical situation is very severe, the growth of the pensions does not follow the rises in prices in all areas of existence. Last year two grandmoms left our little community. Dusica Bogdanovic died at the age of 88, and Danica Markovic died in December at the age of 83 . Darinka Devrnje left for Krajina (in Croatia) with her daughter. Together, the two of them are going to try to continue their lives there. As decided with her grand-daughter, I shifted her help to her mother in law , Zora Vojnovic who lives in Belgrade and who, up until now, had only been the user of the fund solely for the medical purposes. Currently there are 18 users of the fund who receive 20-40 DM on the monthly basis, from whom seven receive additional help for electric heating, as well as one user who only receives the aid for the medical supplies. Thanks to the friends from Sweden, everyone received valuable presents for the last Christmas which meant a lot not just in a material way, but also as a gesture of a moral and emotional support. According to the current state of the fund, there is enough money until the month of June. Dear friends, every day I listen to the statements filled with a big gratitude from the fund users and aimed at you. They are very much aware that thanks to you they are in a privileged situation, compared to a whole army of poor that is trying to survive in Serbia. Along with this yearly report I once again wish to communicate their most sincere regards and best wishes.

Sincerely yours, Lina.