Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is personally financing scholarships in the new academic year for students from Croatia via the "Vladimir Matijevic" fund which is managed by the Serb Privrednik association, the association said in a press release on Wednesday.

During his service in Zagreb, when he, as Metropolitan, ran the Eparchy of Zagreb and Ljubljana, Patriarch Porfirije supported and assisted the association’s activities and scholarship holders, the press release said, adding he will continue to do so as the head of the SPC.

“In the last academic year, Privrednik provided scholarships for 80 students, mostly from underdeveloped areas in Croatia. Ahead of the new academic year, we are intensively collecting funds as we have until now, for scholarships for talented students and those of poorer economic status. Annual scholarships amount to HRK 5,000 for secondary school students and HRK 10,000 for university students.”

Some of the distinguished persons from the creative industries have been engaged in the campaign to collect those funds: singer Momcilo Bajagic Bajaga, and actors Goran Bogdan, Voja Brajovic, Svetlana Bojkovic and so on.