Charity’s bedtime stories for Croatian city children

Even the coronavirus lockdown has not been able to stop a children’s charity spreading the joy of reading to children in five cities in Croatia.

Since being founded in 2009, Teta Pričalica – which translates as ‘lady storyteller’ – has enlisted the help of some 700 volunteers to read bedtime stories to children in the country’s hospitals each night. The project’s goal, reports Time Out, is to help bring light and happiness into the lives of ill children.

Teta is just one of a number of volunteer projects launched by Portić, a child rights organisation itself set up in 2006. Volunteers, male and female, read to children in Riejka, Zagreb, Split, Čakovec and Pula.

‘Bringing light and happiness to sick children’

Since March 22, isolation measures imposed in Croatia as a result of the coronavirus outbreak have meant the project has had to move online. But this has not stopped volunteers from doing what they love, and they are continuing to read to children on Portić’s Facebook page and Instagram pages.

Recognising just how grateful children and parents have been for the charity’s selfless work, a Croatian national newspaper, 24Sata, recently recognised Teta Pričalica’s efforts by awarding them the prestigious Pride of Croatia annual gong for 2019.

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