A Thousand Wishes Foundation

Extended name: A Thousand Wishes Foundation (Fondacija hiljadu želja)
Country: Serbia
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Fondacija-hiljadu-%C5%BEelja-100332081862835
Reference person: Sunčica Petrović
Email of the reference person: Hiljaduzelja@gmail.com

A Thousand Wishes Foundation was established in October 2018 by a group of family members of persons with autism. It is a non-governmental, non-profit organization established to pursue general-welfare goals, improve social and health protection, improve the position of persons with disabilities, care for children, young people and the elderly.

About the Foundation

The Foundation aims at:

  • Improving the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and autism and their families with the focus on protecting, promoting and exercising internationally established standards in the field of human rights and civil liberties.
  • Improving and raising public awareness about the needs of people with autism and intellectual disabilities.
  • Encouraging and implementing activities on a wider social agenda that emphasize the abilities of people with autism and intellectual disabilities and contribute to the development of their potential, the strengthening of their personality and integration into society.
  • Improving and educating the public about the problems, potentials, rights and obligations of people with autism and intellectual disabilities.
  • Providing material and any other assistance to people with autism and intellectual disabilities.
  • Achieving the full integration of people with autism and intellectual disabilities and their families into all segments of social and economic life.
  • Providing and enabling the fulfilment of conditions for the independent life of persons with autism and intellectual disabilities.
  • Ensuring the independent life of people with autism and intellectual disabilities as a user of day care services, housing with support and/or personal assistance.

While the Foundation may be young, its founders and associates are family members and professionals with extensive knowledge and experience from the field of autism and intellectual disabilities.

Particular areas of interest and the direction in which the Foundation is aiming its activities are issues of youth and adults with autism, i.e. higher education, housing, employment and health care. In addition, Foundation is devoted to education of families and professionals, with special interest in insufficiently spoken or problematic topics. At the moment, in addition to IPA2, the Foundation is participating in two more Erasmus + projects:

  • Training University Teachers for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. This programme is addressed to teachers and professors at the University level, to improve their knowledge about intellectual disabilities, the specific educational needs related to them, and the different possibilities to adapt their subjects for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.
  • A spectrum of opportunities: training field professionals on how to recruit and support individuals with autism at the workplace.

Staff

Sunčica Petrović
Sunčica Petrović

Role: Founder
Country: Serbia
Mail: suncica.petrovic@yahoo.com

Sunčica Petrović is the founder and managing director of the foundation. She has a degree in Management, and in addition to everyday operation, in Foundation she in charge of international cooperation and managing European projects. She coordinates Foundation’s international projects.
Sunčica was a project coordinator for Serbian Society of Autism, as team leader in projects DE-ENIGMA, funded by Horizon 2020 (contract no. 688835) and “IPA+: Inclusion of people with autism in Europe. Towards a specialized training model for professionals”, funded by Erasmus+ (contract no. 2016-1-ES01-KA204-025061). Sunčica is a member of Autism Europe since 2007, and member of Serbian Society of Autism since 1999. She contributed to designing and writing of Serbian autism national projects: “Truth and prejudice about autism”, “Family assistant”, “Weekend program”, “Legal assistance”, “Parent advisory program”, “Caregiver Skills Training”, “Online counseling”, “Medical rooms” and has collaborated with Ministry of social affairs, Ministry of Health, Autism Europe, Autism Speaks, WHO, HELP, UNDP, UNICEF and numerous corporate donors. She has a 41 year old brother with autism.
Sunčica speaks English, French and German.

Nenad Glumbić
Nenad Glumbić

Role: Scientific Associate
Country: Serbia
Mail: nenadglumbic@gmail.com

Nenad holds a PhD in Special Education from the University of Belgrade (Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation). He is a full professor at the University of Belgrade and principal researcher of the project “Social Participation of the Persons with Intellectual Disability”. His research has been focused on autism and intellectual disabilities. Nenad is a scientific associate of the Foundation since the first day. He is author and co-author of 3 books and more than 300 research articles. As a research fellow, he spent two months at Bristol University and Oxford University.
He collaborated in the projects “The Quality Improvement of Welfare Services for Persons with Disabilities (Ministry of Labor and Social Policy); “Local Action Plan for Children” (UNICEF); “Establishment of the Center for Inclusive Preschool Education in Kragujevac” (UN – Habitat); “Structuring and Institutionalizing Day Care Service” (Humanitarian organization “Dečje srce”); “Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Education and Employment of Persons with Disabilities” – Midway” (USAID Mission in Serbia); “Support to the work of Commissions for Assessment and Orientation of Children with Special Educational Needs and Day Care Centres for Children with Disability” (UNICEF – Montenegro office); “Social Welfare And Child Care System Reform: Enhancing Social Inclusion” (UNDP), „Inclusion of people on the autism spectrum in Europe. Towards a specialized training model for professionals“ (Erasmus+).
Nenad speaks English and Spanish.