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See the heart of Bosnia Herzegovina

This initiative aims to unite people across the Zenica-Doboj canton in their one love for the land and nature. By creating jobs in eco-tourism for people from all ethnicities, "former enemies are becoming business partners".

Description

This project aims to reconstruct several tourist attractions and sites in our region which were destroyed by the war in 1992 – 1995, including mountain resorts and rafting clubs. By reconstructing and rebuilding these sites we aim to rebuild eco-tourism and create employment for the local people from all ethnic and religious backgrounds. This project is crossing entity lines and ethnic divisions and uniting people, because no matter what your background you will still love the same natural environment. At the end former enemies are becoming business partners so that by working together we are building our shared future together.

In the educational part of the project activities we plan to train volunteers to be tourist guides and skippers. The project is carried out with Balkan Akcija (Balkan Action) and it is initiated by our member organisations.

Aims / Objectives

By reconstructing what has been destroyed by the war and opening this region to tourists we will bring new and positive changes into a region and society which is blocked by the past. We will awaken hope amongst the people by turning ruined buildings into tourist accommodation centres, by offering employment to the people from rural areas, and enhancing cross-ethnic and cross-entity cooperation. This should create an educational and constructive environment for local people.

How it is Articulated

In the first part of this initiative we will implement a series of workshops in order to educate volunteers and others in tourist guide skills. After this we will run workshops teaching people how to be fitness trainers and skippers for rafting.

This initiative has a very multicultural character because the cultural, natural, and historical monuments which are going to be reconstructed or rebuilt are not just the historical and cultural heritage of one Bosnian ethnicity but of all. The Zenica – Doboj canton is currently the most populated one, and with more than 7 ethnicities including Bosniak, Croatian, Serbian, Jewish, Albanian, Hungarian, and Austrian, it has the right to be known as a multicultural region.

Achievements / Learning points

It makes us particularly proud to know that after this project is implemented, this region will have its own capacities for sustainable and productive tourism. We see this as very important for future peace and stability because “satisfied economic needs of the people are a factor for stability."

So far what is going really well is the cooperation with partner organisations and other NGOs from both entities - that cannot be said for the local governments and authorities.

For example several years back NGOs from both entities were working together on numerous environmental and peacebuilding projects and campaigns but in many cases entity authorities and government were not very happy to hear about these successful projects.

What have we achieved from this initiative? The chance to promote our association, open new job opportunities, create new friendships and partnerships and personal satisfaction for doing something good for this region and its communities.

We would advise others who are working in civil sector- do not work alone. Partnerships and alliances are very important.

What would we do differently? – maybe we all needed to spend more time looking for partner NGOs from the EU.

Geographical Area of Operation

Zenica Doboj canton – Bosnia Herzegovina , South-East Europe.

Funding Resources

Organisations Involved