The Mother and Child Relief Foundation is the official charity foundation of Their Royal Highnesses Prince Vladimir and Princess Brigitta Karadjordjevic of Yugoslavia. It was set up in 1999 after the NATO bombing campaign over Kosovo and other parts of Serbia ended. At that time the foundation bore the original name of "Mother and Child Victims of War Relief Foundation". The immediate aim of the Mother and Child Victims of War Relief Foundation was to bring in humanitarian aid to ALL those who were in desperate need of it as a result of the prior conflicts that had taken place over the previous eight odd years and also as a result of the suffering that the NATO bombing campaign had left in its wake.

The name of the charity was chosen because of the terribly high number of women and children who had suffered as bystanders to the many conflicts that had taken place in the former Yugoslavia. The Mother and Child (Victims of War) Relief Foundation was also set up with a very strong message at its heart – Politics has no place in charity. Aid is issued to those souls who need it the most, regardless of the victim’s nationality, religion or political persuasion. Those involved with the Mother and Child Relief Foundation humanitarian effort work under the motto, “There are no borders in human suffering”.

As time went on, the ashes of the many conflicts began to settle and the devastation caused by the NATO bombing had been all but forgotten outside the former Yugoslavia. As all this was happening it very soon became an illusion that the suffering had also all but disappeared. Sadly this was, and is today, just not true. There are still, for example, a vast number of refugees scattered around various parts of the former Yugoslavia who have no chance of returning to their homes for many number of reasons. Many of these human beings have no official papers or passports as they had to flee and leave everything behind. Many lost family members in the conflicts and many others have started new families inside the refugee camps with the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring.

There are still many people who live with various medical conditions that came about through the years of conflict. A large number of these are amputees. Some have lost limbs as a direct result of one battle or another whilst others were injured through the ever-present land mine threat. The health system does try to look after these souls but more often than not it is stretched beyond its ability to offer an acceptable standard of medical care.

Besides all this there are the daily cases of those who need help from various humanitarian organizations for a variety of reasons, from natural disasters such as floods to basic poverty. The social security structure is just not up to the job of being able to care for all these cases and that is where the charities and humanitarian organizations come into the picture. One of these is the Mother and Child Relief Foundation, which has been responsible for a wide spectrum of humanitarian projects since 1999, from supplying hospitals with life saving equipment to helping the sisters of one monastery by purchasing a calf to supply the sisters and local villagers with milk. Along the way there have been many tears of joy but sadly too many tears of pain and distress also.

Our aims

To continue to do all we can in Mother and Child Relief Foundation to bring as much help as possible to as many of those who need it and whilst doing this to remain free of the tangled webs of bureaucracy that plague many other charities. Plans are under way to facilitate the expansion of the geographical area where aid from the Mother and Child Relief Foundation is sent to. This is being done so that the foundation will be able to respond to a much wider spectra of humanitarian needs across the globe as it did for example in 2004 after the devastation caused by the Tsunami or in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina struck the southern United States.