Brno, Nov 24 (CTK) – Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky opened the first Czech community centre for war veterans, which will offer them support and psychological and social aid, at the Military Hospital in Brno on Thursday.
“A veteran who is returning sometimes feels like an outcast. This leads to additional psychological troubles and traumas. It is hard to cope with it also within one’s professional and family lives,” the veteran centre director, Karel Cernoch, said.
Cernoch said the centre should be a place to which war veterans can come and feel that they belong there.
Stropnicky said he is glad that the centre was established. “Reintegration into ordinary life can be a challenge for war veterans because sometimes they even have nowhere to return since not all families can stand it,” he said.
The construction of the veteran centre cost 8.2 million crowns.
There are about 700 surviving veterans from World War Two and approximately 13,000 veterans of foreign missions held after 1989, including some 1000 women, in the country.
The veteran centre includes a conference room, a lounge, a zone for children, an administrative room, a psychologist’s office and storerooms.
($1=25.488 crowns)
