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Karanac, Croatia - Residents of Dunja Agriculture Economy .purchased a house in the village of Karanac with funds from The Open Society Foundation Mental Health Initiative in 2013 to house four of their residents. The first residents, two couples, moved in at the end of 2015. Speaking about the reason for opening the house, the Director of the NGO Center for Inclusion, Vlasta Skorak said “We were not satisfied with the beneficiaries’ possibilities for working activities in Osijek (the nearest city, where the NGO is based). We looked for an opportunity to employ them. The house in Karanac made me think they could produce their own food, that we could have an exhibit of local historical items, and it could be a place for tourists to visit.” Karanac attracts tourists year round. They have named the house Dunja Agriculture Economy. The residents are Ana Molnar (short brown hair), 31, her boyfriend Domagoj Tot (short fair hair), 31, Nenad Cugalj (short brown hair with beard), 33, and his girlfriend Ksenija Jankovic (short fair hair), 36. Domagoj lived in institutions from infancy and Ksenija from five years old. Both left the institutions when they were 21 years old. They then joined the ‘Center for Inclusion’ where they lived in an apartment, funded with support from the organisation. Talking about his years in the institution, Domagoj said, “We lived with five boys in one room. The institution was hell!” “Life now is very good. When I moved into ‘Inclusion,’ I had a feeling that something positive was happening with my life. That I might have a job or education, I discovered that I might have hope, that I might have some opportunity.” He added: “I feel like I’m born again, like a new person. Life, now, is too beautiful!”
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