Serbia captain Maja Ognjenovic, Yusidey Silie Frometa, captain of Cuba, Darnel Neslihan, Turkish opposite and Tatiana Soledad Riso, Argentina’s libero, symbolically finished painting of the field

Belgrade, Serbia, June 14, 2012 - In the foster home for children “Moša Pijade”, in Belgrade, the national volleyball players of Serbia, Argentina, Cuba and Turkey finished the paint job and presented the grand opening of the volleyball court, built with the funds for the improvement of sports facilities provided by the Volleyball Federation of Serbia and its General Sponsor, the “Vip mobile” company, as a part of the project of social awareness.

Volleyball Federation of Serbia secretary general Slobodan Miloševic greeted the children and the guests from Argentina, Turkey and Cuba, and then the representatives of each participating team at the Pool H tournament of the 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix Tournament,i.e. Maja Ognjenovic, captain of Serbia, Yusidey Silie Frometa, captain of Cuba, Darnel Neslihan, Turkish opposite, and Tatiana Soledad Riso, Argentina’s libero, symbolically finished painting of the field.

After that, the children from foster care played an exhibition match with the international team consisting of several Cuban, Turkish, Argentinean and Serbian players.

The ceremony was attended by the complete Serbian and Cuban teams, along with the representatives of the national teams of Argentina and Turkey. Among the special guests were Vip mobile director of Marketing and Corporate Communications Branka Letica, Francesco D’Alo from Italy, the FIVB supervisor at the pool H tournament of the 2012 FIVB World Grand Prix in Belgrade, and Zoran Avramovic, director of Marketing at the Volleyball Federation of Serbia.

"We are all humans, and this is our main feature," Mr Milosevic said. "As you can see we all gathered here, the representatives from all the continents, the representatives of the national teams of Serbia, Argentina, Cuba and Turkey, people from Europe, Asia, the Americas, and we wanted to show the children that they are not alone. We take care of them, and we will do so in the future." 

"My personal opinion and the opinion of the FIVB is that this is a very nice initiative of the Volleyball Federation of Serbia, and we are extremely happy to be here and to take part in this," Mr D’Alo said. "The volleyball is not only the sport which is played inside the competition, it is much more, it promotes friendship and it helps the people who need support. Thank you for this very nice opportunity, the FIVB and I, acting as the representative of the International Volleyball Federation, are very grateful to be involved in this wonderful project."