Each time I’m in Sarajevo, I feel inspired. Smog and sad buildings make the city gray; the levels of bureaucracy are so absurdly confusing that even the natives get lost trying to explain them; corruption is widespread and the socio-economic future for Bosnia’s younger generations is uncertain. Despite this, I’ve met great optimism and love in the individuals I’ve come across on each of my three trips. They are passionate about their nation and they are truly making a difference in their communities. They make me feel part of something big. It was a short trip this time, just two and a half days, but it was full of new experiences that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
These are exciting times.
My day at the U.N.
Anybody who knows me can testify to the fact that I love to travel and dream of working internationally. I’m pretty honest about my ambitions even though my life has been on a detour as of late (albeit a very satisfying one!). But if I could do absolutely anything, I would want to be the General Secretary of the United Nations. I’d gladly settle for a lesser title, but the point is, I want to hold a position of influence in which I can affect real change in people’s lives in an efficient yet compassionate way. (I’m open to suggestions, job offers...) ;)
Anyway, my teaching colleagues and I were invited to attend a Municipal Development Conference, arranged by the Embassy of Sweden and SIDA (the Swedish International Development Agency), and held at the UNDP headquarters in Sarajevo. The purpose was to ”deepen the dialogue between the international community and the collective of municipalities to stimulate development and reform at the local level in BiH” (Bosnia and Herzegovina). And oh boy, what a collective of municipalities there were. And politicians. And NGOs. And foreign diplomats. And moi.... (say what?!?)
To say the least, I felt like a very insignificant person in the presence of such political muscle. But it was kind of eye-opening. For one thing, I realized that mingling with bureaucrats is maybe not my favorite thing, but that I could get used to it. And I also realized that the implementation of municipal development measures in BiH is a lot more complicated than an idealist like me can imagine. I naively think that reason, logic, and the good of the people are really good directives to style a society after. But when those things aren’t necessarily part of the process or even the ultimate goal, things get a bit intense.
The highlight of the day was without a doubt meeting Maya Bekto and her sister (whose name I sadly don’t recall), two women who started up a social business called Wool Fabrique. Maya is a designer and her sister is head of production. There are many women living in rural areas who are uneducated and unemployed, but they have a skill: the traditional craft of weaving. So the sisters had the idea of supplying these women with an original design and wool (bought from local sheep farmers) and paying them to weave artifacts such as baskets, tote bags and toiletry cases.
This has a number of positive social ramifications: 1. Local sheep farmers can sell their wool, 2. Rural women can support themselves and their families (they receive payment in cash immediately upon product completion), 3. The items are sold on the European market (think trade fairs in Paris, London, and Berlin), thereby creating a name for artisanal Bosnian products, and 4. Maya and her sister can live off of the profits and employ people who otherwise have a hard time finding a source of income. This is the essence of social enterprise!
Wool Fabrique has experienced tremendous success and now the sisters are facing the challenge of balancing high demand with low production. They can’t do it all themselves and they are currently looking for more investors and workers! You can order these stylish Wool Fabrique products online and support a very worthy business. Check out their products here: http://hoolaboola.com/2013/02/08/wool-fabrique-j-adore/
And if you can read French, you can visit the official site: http://woolfabrique.com/la-fabrique/
Center for Healthy Aging
This was a highlight for me. A big social dilemma in BiH is the fact that the elderly aren’t ”seen.” Since it’s not kosher for family members to put them in retirement homes, they live with relatives, but are largely ignored. Most of them sit at home with nothing to do, and often succumb to loneliness, depression and poor health. One woman named Sejdefa Basic-Catic, along with a team of people, recognized this dilemma and got the idea to start a center for healthy aging in which the elderly could gather, fellowship, paint, sing, play chess, exercise, and eat together. The center is the only non-smoking facility in the city (!!!), and ironically, in a society of smokers, it has enjoyed tremendous popularity.
There is a core team of people that runs the center, but it also relies on a number of volunteers. Many of these volunteers are actually ”troubled youths” who have found a place where they feel needed and valued, a place where they can give to a cause that’s bigger than themselves. I don’t need to explain the enormous benefits of this. It also provides the forum for a much-needed meeting of generations.
A large number of patrons have relatives who have emigrated to other countries, so they are taught how to use email and Skype to communicate with their loved ones.
At one point we got to listen in on a choir rehearsal. Ca 20 people sat around a big table and sang old Bosnian (maybe even Yugoslavian?) folk songs. One of them was called (roughly translated) ”O Sarajevo you beautiful city.” If found it very moving: people who have survived a war, and maybe even fought on different sides, joining in unison song about their beloved city that only 20 years ago nearly succumbed to hatred. The significance of this can’t be expressed in words. Only in song.
I could go on and on about how great this center is, but I think the pictures say it all. You can check out the website: http://www.zdravostarenje.ba/
MoBa
I mentioned him in ”Bosnia Part 2,” and here he is again, because he’s that cool. Eldar Balta is my age but he’s lived so many more lives than me it seems. He knows a lot about a lot of things, and with him you can easily traverse a variety of subjects in one conversation. After the U.N. conference, we all went to the Little Goldfish café (my favorite spot in Sarajevo) and conversed over glasses of wine and pivo (beer). He talked about his work with the Sarajevo Jazz Fest, his life during the war, and his love of home. Unlike me, Eldar has no desire to travel outside of his own country. To me that sounds counter-intuitive since that’s pretty much the only thing I want to do. But he made a remark that made me pause. He said something to the extent of, ”I travel between experiences as other people travel between countries.” Huh.
About a year ago he started MoBa with his best friend Luka (an American ex-patriate from Pennsylvania). Luka is a landscape artist by trade, and one of the visions of MoBa is to engage people (primarily young people) to improve their local communities by cleaning up and beautifying nearby parks. The one you see in this picture is a little green space in the middle of a Tito-era apartment complex. MoBa planted grass and trees where before there was only mud.
There’s still a lot of work to be done, work that has less to do with landscaping and more to do with changing hearts and mentalities, but it’s a start! If you’re interested in learning more, check out MoBa’s Facebook page (most of it is in Bosnian, but there are some posts made in English): https://www.facebook.com/mobasarajevo
Gimnazija Dobrinja
Our last stop was Gimnazija Dobrinja, the upper secondary school we’ve had contact with throughout this project. Last year, four of my students lived with four Bosnian students from this school for a week and it was a great experience for everyone. This time around we teachers had a chance to meet a larger group of students to share how we work with entrepreneurship in our own school. It was interesting to hear these students’ thoughts on education, the job market and the future. The overall attitude is one of skepticism and hopelessness. Statistics communicate that the future is not very bright for many of them. The job market is very limited and it’s extremely difficult for college graduates to get a job within their field of study.
So what’s the solution? Elvir Resic (to the right of me in the photo), the deputy mayor of Novi Grad (a suburb of Sarajevo), posed the question: ”Would you be willing to take any job, if only to pay the bills while you wait for better employment to eventually present itself?” For a lot of students, this seemed to be a new thought. Eldar challenged them to become volunteers. Very few people are willing to work without pay, so this was a bit provocative. But the truth is you build relationships with people and you start thinking in a different way when you give generously of your time and energy to a cause that benefits a greater community of people. Yet another alternative is to start your own business. That’s where my colleagues and I came in. Since there are so few ready jobs available, the only other good option is to become your own boss, invent a new product, create your own niche. This requires creative thinking and determination to become part of the solution instead of the problem.
It’s not easy trying to change an entire generation’s outlook on life. Parents pressure their kids to get a good education so that they can get a job. But jobs are scarce, politics are corrupt and change moves at a snail’s pace. I don’t blame young people for growing disillusioned with the dysfunction surrounding them. But I was encouraged by the light I saw in some. These are the future leaders of Bosnia and it’s up to them to choose between being changemakers and forming part of the status quo.
Exciting times indeed.
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