How SAMA’s renovation initiative is helping bring dignity and care back to overlooked communities.
How SAMA’s renovation initiative is helping bring dignity and care back to overlooked communities In villages across Serbia, a visit to the doctor can require traveling long distances — often by foot or unreliable transport — only to arrive at a clinic with peeling paint, broken heating, or no functioning restroom. For far too many rural communities, access to care doesn’t just depend on trained professionals — it depends on whether the clinic itself is usable, safe, and within reach.
In early 2025, SAMA launched a campaign to change that. With support from diaspora donors, local partnerships, and the dedication of health workers on the ground, we completed the renovation of five rural health centers across Serbia. These weren’t just aesthetic upgrades — they were essential interventions to keep clinics open, retain providers, and ensure that every person has the right to care in clean, functional, and dignified conditions.
Each of these five clinics had unique challenges — collapsing floors, broken heating, drafty windows, or stairs so worn they became hazardous. But they all had one thing in common: they had gone too long without investment, and the communities around them were quietly paying the price.
These aren’t just buildings. They are the first and often only point of care for thousands of people — children, pregnant mothers, the elderly. In places where buses run once a day and specialists are hours away, these local clinics are lifelines. When the roof leaks or the lights go out, the entire community feels it. Here’s what we’ve rebuilt — and what it means to the people who rely on these clinics every day.
Ušće serves as a primary care hub for a wide and often hard-to-reach rural population, many of whom travel long distances — by foot, bike, or shared transport — to receive care. Before the renovation, crumbling floors, drafty windows, and poor insulation made visits uncomfortable and, in the winter months, nearly unbearable. These upgrades have transformed the clinic into a clean, warm, and structurally sound space where patients can be treated with dignity.
They’ve also created a dramatically better working environment for providers, improving safety, morale, and retention — ensuring that doctors and nurses can stay and serve the community they care about.
With up to 100 daily visits, the Gornja Trnava clinic is not just a medical facility — it’s a lifeline for an entire region. Patients from nearby villages depend on it for everything from routine checkups to urgent care, often arriving after long travel on foot or by shared rides. Prior to renovation, poor lighting, broken flooring, and outdated heating created a cold, uncomfortable environment that eroded patient trust and strained staff morale.
These renovations have brought the clinic back to life — restoring essential functionality and a sense of dignity to the space. Today, it’s not just a place where care is given, but one where people feel safe, respected, and supported.These improvements brought warmth, light, and renewed dignity to a critical rural clinic that serves over 3,000 patients — many of them elderly and living on fixed incomes. Before the renovation, the interior was dim and worn, with aging ceilings and faded walls that made the clinic feel forgotten.
The lack of proper lighting was especially difficult during the long winter months, when daylight hours are short and visibility is crucial. With fresh paint and newly installed lighting, the space now feels welcoming and safe — a place where older adults can receive care without added stress or discomfort. For staff, it’s a morale boost. For patients, it’s a sign that their health — and their village — still matters.
Before the renovation, simply entering the Srpska Crnja clinic could be a challenge. The stairs were crumbling, windows were cracked and drafty, and old doors no longer closed properly — leaving the clinic exposed to the elements and difficult to heat. For elderly patients, mothers with children, and people with mobility issues, just accessing care became a source of stress.
The improvements to the entrance and structural elements have made the clinic physically safe and emotionally welcoming again. It’s a small town’s primary point of care — and now, for the first time in years, it feels like one.
Though small in size, the Rabrovo clinic plays an essential role in the life of its community. With just over 1,600 registered patients and nearly 700 monthly visits, it provides consistent access to care for those who would otherwise need to travel long distances.
Before the upgrades, deteriorating windows and a broken front door let in cold air and moisture, making both treatment and waiting uncomfortable — especially in the winter. Replacing these core structural elements significantly improved the clinic’s insulation, warmth, and sense of safety. For providers, it means they can focus on care, not damage control. For patients, it’s a space they can enter with comfort and trust.
These renovations weren’t just about bricks and paint — they were about restoring trust in a system that had gone quiet. They were about ensuring that rural health workers can stay in their communities with dignity, that parents can bring their children to a warm, functioning clinic, and that older adults don’t have to choose between comfort and care.
In regions where buses run once a day, where winter weather cuts off entire villages, and where one doctor might serve thousands, these upgrades change lives in quiet, lasting ways. They’re the difference between catching an illness early or too late. Between returning to care or giving up on it altogether.
Each clinic now stands as proof that progress is possible — even in the most under-resourced areas — when there is the will to act and the community to stand behind it. This work is not a one-time effort. It’s a model for how we move forward.
None of this would have been possible without the generosity of our donors and the dedication of local partners, providers, and volunteers. You helped bring essential care back to communities that had long been overlooked — and gave thousands of people a safer, more dignified path to health.
Thank you for being part of this work.
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