Eva Berenji is on a mission, and thanks to SARA—Sharing America’s Resources Abroad— she is accomplishing great things. In Serbia, her home country, people still do not talk about cancer and have many fears about it. When cancer is finally detected, it is often too late and the person dies.

Eva is changing this through CancerInfo, the cancer information center she founded. Now people have a place to turn to for information and support.

The August/September 2006 issue of United Church News featured Eva and CancerInfo. You can read about the many new programs and services she instituted since 2002.

Eva particularly wants to thank not only SARA and the Rev. Attila Szemesi of Congregational UCC in Amherst, but also Federated UCC in Chagrin Falls. The congregations sponsored her recent trip to Ohio and Washington D.C.

Eva volunteers her time to CancerInfo, which depends on donations for survival. Without the churches’ support, her trip would not have been possible. Eva attended the World Cancer Congress in Washington D.C. and presented information on CancerInfo. She also traveled to Ohio, where she learned about complementary cancer therapies which she hopes to introduce in Serbia.

In addition to physical healing, emotional healing is important. Over 50% of cancer patients in Serbia also suffer clinical depression. Through her visits to Riverside Hospital in Columbus, MetroHealth Hospital and the Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland, Eva learned about art therapy and music therapy as ways to support cancer patients and their families by offering hope, self-esteem and something as simple as a distraction from their illness.

Imagine that you are a person with cancer living in a place where no one will talk about it, where you are isolated because most people believe they can catch it from you. Imagine that, because no cancer screening is done in your country, your cancer was not found until it was too advanced to cure.

Imagine that you cannot find any written information about cancer. And imagine that you, having little money and no health insurance, are told by the hospital staff that they can give you chemotherapy—if you can buy the drugs. If you lived in Serbia and had cancer, you would not have to imagine this scenario. It would be your reality.

That reality began to change in 2004. That is when CancerInfo opened in Novi Sad. The information center, the first ever in the country, is volunteer-based and self-sustaining. Its goals are to educate and directly assist cancer patients and to conduct a comprehensive education program stressing cancer prevention and early detection.

"Cancer is a taboo in Serbia; you don’t talk about it. People don’t know anything about it and believe that talking about it will make it appear," explains the Center’s volunteer Coordinator, Eva Berenji.

"Some treatment is available, but there are no support services. The patient is always left to fight the battle alone. The worst thing is that cancer patients are isolated because people fear they will catch it from them. This attitude must be changed."

Ms. Berenji, an English teacher in Novi Sad, was instrumental in the creation of CancerInfo, organized by the Ecumenical Humanitarian Organisation (EHO) and the Institute of Oncology in Sremska Kamenica.

Through her volunteer work with the EHO, a faith-based agency providing help to the vulnerable population of Vojvodina, Serbia’s northernmost province, she became interested in helping people with cancer. Berenji received training and education in Europe and the U.S., including the American Cancer Society University in Atlanta, to help prepare her to administer CancerInfo.

The need was urgent for the service, which provides information on cancer issues and emotional support for patients, families and friends. No such service was available at cancer treatment centers or hospitals in Vojvodina, where Novi Sad is located.

Since CancerInfo opened, changes have begun. "In 2002 there was not one booklet on any type of cancer in Serbia," said Berenji. Since then, the Center’s staff of 43 trained volunteers has produced 14 information booklets on breast, cervical, colorectal, prostate and lung cancer. They have provided counseling and other assistance at no charge to hundreds of people via a phone help line and face-to-face contacts at the Center, in the Serbian, Hungarian and Slovakian languages.

Several publicity and fundraising events, common in the U.S. but nearly unheard of in Serbia, have been successfully organized. Daffodil for Life, Embroidery for Life and Walk for Life raised cancer awareness and cash to fund CancerInfo’s operations.

The money and the education and publicity are equally important. The Center relies totally on donations to fund its operations, and every dollar – or euro – raised is important. That is one reason why Ms. Berenji values the support of Sharing America’s Resources Abroad (SARA), the Ohio Conference-sponsored medical mission. SARA has sponsored two trips to Ohio for her to visit cancer care institutions.

Collaboration with SARA— primarily through Congregational UCC in Amherst and its pastor Attila Szemesi—also has provided cash donations, medicine, $400 in wigs donated by a shop in Lorain, and buyers for embroidery donated by Serbian women and sold through a silent auction at the church.

"These are small things to others but essential to us," Berenji said. Underprivileged women can’t afford wigs when chemotherapy takes their hair. "When we can supply a wig to one of these women, they are overwhelmed," she added.

Education of the Serbian people is vital. "Ignorance is the most difficult thing to fight," she said. She tells the story of the Daffodils for Life fund drive, when boxes for donations were placed in busy spots and givers received a daffodil. One person donating money insisted on giving it to Eva, rather than placing it in the box. "Please throw it in. I don’t want to touch the box," they said, afraid of contracting cancer.

CancerInfo doesn’t provide medical counseling and cannot provide financial assistance. This is their most difficult challenge. "It is always the same thing and it keeps repeating," she said. Serbia’s population is poor due to repeated wars, political upheaval and economic crises, she explained. Even the hospitals do not always have the drugs needed to treat a patient’s cancer.

"Patients are told that they must buy the drugs, but they can’t afford them. They call the Center and ask for help, but we have to say ‘no.’ We can’t afford the drugs, either. Then they just hang up the phone," Eva finished, distress audible in her voice.

Olga Kornieva, pictured above, had surgery in spring 2006 to correct the curvature in her spine at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Erie, Pennsylvania.

All fees and travel expenses for Olga and her mother from Kiev, Ukraine were paid by SARA’s Children, the Ohio Conference mission to provide medical care to children living in countries where adequate health care is minimal or non-existent.

Olga and her mother stayed with Stephen and Jean Szilagyi in Conneaut while Olga recovered from her surgery.