Help Maja

January 2026.

We are reaching out again because Maja needs our help again.

A year ago, in February 2025, the five of us sent out a public appeal for help for our childhood friend Maja Čolović Selak, who was then diagnosed with a grave illness: Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, PPMS - an incurable, fast-developing disease that affects all aspects of one’s life, from physical to mental (you can see our original appeal for help here).

Back then Maja was still able to live independently. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Today, she is almost completely disabled and depends on the help and care of others. Cognitively and mentally, she is still our cheerful and witty Maja, but her physical functions are rapidly fading.

To make matters worse, she is yet to be approved for government-sponsored disability assistance for which she meets all the requirements and which she needs to survive.

A year ago, the goal we set seemed unattainable: we wanted to collect 5,000 euros so that Maja and her daughter Lena could survive the next six months - that is, until Maja’s disability pension was approved. Care and love poured out like a waterfall: hundreds of people sent money from all parts of Serbia and many parts of the world! In less than a month enough money was secured to provide Maja with care for an entire year: we hired a caregiver for 12 months; bought an electric hospital bed for people with severe disabilities, as well as a washing machine and a dryer; we paid all outstanding and several upcoming bills, and set aside money for hygiene, cosmetics, and cleaning supplies for a year. In the meantime, we filed an application for Maja's disability pension, for the approval of which we waited almost a year.

A month ago, she started receiving this pension, which turned out to be minimal and can only cover her rent and utilities. Without compensation in the form of government disability benefits, she cannot survive, let alone live with a modicum of dignity.

That's why we are relaunching the charity campaign now: our goal is to raise another 5,000 euros to secure a caregiver and cover Maja's basic living expenses for the next six months in the hope that she will be approved for disability benefits by then.

We all know where this leads - to ever less life. And yet, even so little is enormous when you watch it fade away...

We have been friends with Maja for almost forty years. Help us keep that friendship alive for as long as possible.

Thank you!

Jelena, Marija, Milena, Tamara and Vesna

February 2025. - Initial campaign

Six months ago Maja Čolović Selak was diagnosed with a very serious illness: Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS). PPMS is not only incurable, it is a disease that progresses rapidly and severely affects every aspect of one’s life.

Until recently, Maja lived like all of us - she worked, took care of her small family, raised her daughter Lena, supported her artistic talents, and loved to gather her old school-friends once a year so we don’t lose touch and forget one another. However, everything suddenly changed last April when, with the onset of her first symptoms, she lost her job. Neither Maja nor her doctors initially recognized the symptoms, and months passed before the correct diagnosis was established - a devastating loss of time in the case of PPMS since an early diagnosis might have staved off some of the worst consequences. Facing financial difficulties after losing her job, we (her childhood friends) stepped in: we provided essential medical needs, took her to medical appointments, cleaned her home, and brought her food. But PPMS is relentless: within just a few months, Maja lost the ability to walk; this was followed by other seemingly minor difficulties (balance issues, speech and vision impairment, and reduced mobility). According to her neurologists, Maja is now officially disabled and unable to work.

To make matters worse, the Serbian healthcare system is almost as cruel as PPMS. Due to a bureaucratic maze and the constant shifting of responsibility between different healthcare institutions, Maja has still not been granted a disability pension and insurance, and so she is facing financial difficulties that her closest friends and family cannot bear alone (her mother and husband from whom she is separated are also disabled).

That is why we are launching this initiative: our goal is to raise €5,000 to help Maja and Lena, who is a minor, survive the next six months, until she qualifies for disability retirement. The funds are needed for essential living expenses (food and hygiene), Maja’s medical needs (diapers, medication, transportation to doctor’s appointments, etc.), and monthly bills, both current and overdue.

No one initiates this kind of action unless they are in a desperate situation. But a desperate situation is not always permanent: it can change if we come together. Maja’s situation is more than difficult - it is alarming - and threatens to strip away all dignity from a life that could just as easily be our own or that of our loved ones. Please help us prevent that from happening. Thank you!