[Croatia] Social Workers Protest in Front of the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth, and Social Policy After Murder of their Colleague

Exactly 24 hours following the tragedy in Đakovo, where an employee of the Centre for Social Work was killed by her client and her colleague was wounded, social workers protested in front of the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth, and Social Policy.

Most social workers returned to work wearing black, and organized the protest through social media networks, where, in order to raise awareness of the potential for a repeat of yesterday's tragedy, social they placed banners reading ‘ONE OF US’ (translation: jedna od nas).

‘We have put up a notice that we are here for our users, but we want some things to change. We want the status of officials’, said the head of the Centre for Social Care in Zagreb, Tatjana Brozić-Perić.

Even though workers had been told by the Ministry and Minister Nada Murganić that they did not have to come to work today, social workers at the Trnje centre entered their office wearing black.

‘While we are mourning, family violence could take place, a child could suffer, and our profession is not just a profession, for us it is a calling. We will react to every urgent situation’, said one social worker.

The Croatian Chamber of Social Workers shares the various difficult experiences that social workers go through every day, as well as their concern with media hate speech about the profession. More information about the situation and demands of the Croatian Association of Social Workers can be found on their YouTube channel.