Alumnae Create Center for Women and Youth in Sarajevo

'Centar za razvoj zena I mladih'

A Place to Heal the Wounds of War and Rebuild Lives

Anne Parish SP '02, M Ed '03, and Michaelina Jakala SP '02 are working to rebuild war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) one woman and youth at a time. Recruited by Bosnian women leaders, they helped establish a center for women and young people to expand their personal, job, and entrepreneurial skills, learn self confidence, and go out to lead to make a difference. Sounds a lot like St. Kate's, doesn't it?

Michaelina, who majored in peace studies, explains how her education at St. Catherine's allowed her to risk such a visionary venture: "St. Kate's nurtured in me a sense of leadership and empowerment and appreciation of a strong female community." Anne, an elementary education major, agrees and adds, "St. Kate's provided me with a solid education while instilling in me a sense of service to my community. It also fostered the deep analytic thinking that has led me to seek solutions to community problems." Michaelina and Anne even invited one of their professors from St. Catherine's, Dr. Nasrin Jewell, to be among the Center's advisors.

Within months of its opening in late 2008, the Center for Women and Youth Development has recently been embraced by a long-standing Bosnian nongovernmental organization that promotes healing from the 1990s war -- Wings of Hope. This new relationship provides the Center with greater credibility and sustainability as well as staff support, development, and psychological resources for the women and youth. The Center will sponsor its first summer youth program in July 2009 while maintaining its original programming: women's business and entrepreneurial enterprises, English classes, courses offered in conjunction with the university, and the youth sexual education and HIV awareness project.

Clients of the Center, who are also members, are strong in their praise:

"I appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow as an active and engaged member of Bosnia-Herzegovinan society"
"There are so many needs in this society that aren't being addressed by the current NGO community. The Center for Women and Youth development aims to serve those who are marginalized and disenfranchised."
"This organization is something new and innovative. It's a novel idea to incorporate members' ideas for programming, which I do not think has not been practiced in Bosnia before."
"It's refreshing to have adults that care, support and involve our ideas [those of youth] for change in Bosnia. It makes me feel valued and knowledgeable that I can contribute to a unifying cause that is greater than I am."

So how did two young women from St. Kate's end up in Sarajevo being social entrepreneurs? That is a story of connections and collaborations, following dreams, and confidently going into new situations with much to learn and much to offer.

Women in Lebanon Brought Them Together

As St. Catherine undergrads, Anne and Michaelina forged a friendship in the class "Women and Work in the Middle East" taught by Dr. Nasrin Jewell. They teamed up on a project on Lebanon. Together they delved into the financial and societal plight of women there, who have been affected by war and excluded from many educational and leadership opportunities. After graduation, they stayed in touch.

Interests Sent Them On Separate Adventures

With heritage ties to Poland, Michaelina traveled to Krakow to earn her master's degree in peace studies at Jagiellonian University and then continued on to the United Kingdom for her Ph.D. at the University of Bradford. While working at her thesis on the aftermath of war-time rape in the former Yugoslavia, Michaelina spent ten months volunteering with the Association for Concentration Camp Torture Survivors (ACCTS) in Sarajevo.

Anne had stayed on at St. Catherine's for a master's degree in education (MAED). After developing a friendship with an individual from Slovenia, she decided to enroll in a Slovenian language course at the University of Ljubljana. “Slovenia is a beautiful hidden jewel.”

Returning to the states, Anne taught as an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow at the Afro-Centric Educational Academy, a middle school in Minneapolis. “I loved it!” She pioneered a curriculum of “Leadership through Service Learning,” modeled in part on a program she herself experienced in a high school Guatemalan service project. Anne later became the Associate Director of the nonprofit Youthrive, the Upper Mid-West affiliate for PeaceJam International.

Shared Volunteerism Joined Them

Linked by similar aims and a passion for international experiences, Michaelina invited Anne to volunteer with her in Sarajevo. For a month in the summer of 2008, they tutored in English, assisted in the women's sewing and business circles, and guided youth at the ACCTS Center. They became so much a part of the projects that the director of these programs, a war victim herself, Alisa Muratcaus, asked them to join her in starting a center totally devoted to women and youth. These Katies jumped at the chance to make such a difference. "I believe compassion is the cornerstone of a fulfilled and successful life," said Anne.

Their time at St. Kate's had prepared and catapulted them into saying yes to such entrepreneurial nonprofit work. "St. Kate's gave the space to explore the various theoretical and practical elements needed for real leadership," said Michaelina.

A Women and Youth Center Emerged

Far from head-in-the-clouds idealists, Michaelina and Anne engaged Nancy E. Weiss, of Catalyst Consulting Group in Minneapolis, to assist them in the organization-building details, such as setting up the Center's structure and board of advisors, approaching granting organizations for start-up funds, etc. They contacted a Bosnian lawyer and governmental authorities to set up a nonprofit organization, investing their own savings in the effort.

All the while they receiving direction and input from their Bosnian partners and the women and youth they were setting out to serve. "The international community has a reputation of coming and doing 'for you' rather than 'with you,'" says Michaelina. "We wanted to work with the Bosnians and follow their lead." "For example," Anne explains, "there were two young men -- Mirza, 18 and Kenan, 22 -- who wanted to set up a web site for sexual health for young Bosnians. They did the research, set up the forum for questions, contacted the doctors for expert answers, etc. We helped hook them up with web designers who could translate their work into web pages." The site is now www.sexos.ba, and one of these web designers is Anne's family friend from Slovenia.

Anne's and Michaelina's roommate, Mersiha Sestic, became so interested in their work that she gave up her initial dreams of a cushy corporate or bank job to join the Women's Center as the Operational Manager. (She is pictured here enjoying one of her typical walks by the river.)

They set up the Center so all clients are members of the decision-making and leadership structure. In addition, an advisory board of Sarajevan community leaders helps oversee and guide the Center's work. Azra Bogucanin, originally from Belgrade, Serbia, and a graduate of Hope University International in Fullerton, California, joined the team as the director of marketing and fund raising. (She is pictured here between Anne and Michaelina.) It was another large step in the organization's development to have Wings of Hope recognize its worth and potential by taking the Center under its wings as a semi-autonomous project. This step offers Anne and Michaelina the confidence that this start-up project will thrive after they return to the United States in October to pursue their separate lives. They will remained tied to the project as consultants.

Presently, all efforts are focused on the launch of the dynamic new summer program for youth. A group of approximately 20 young people (13-25 years old), from different religious backgrounds (including Bosnian Muslims, Catholics, Jews and Orthodox) will be brought together for a series of workshops. The youth from different religious backgrounds and different communities will learn about each other’s stories as well as examples of genocide and alternative resolutions to violent conflict. They will also be encouraged to express their individual stories and share their personal histories through various modes of artistic expression: theatre, drawings, story telling, and photography and film.

Together they will be invited to reflect on their roles as citizens in the post-war society and will be provided the creative and safe space for healing and bonding. The program was conceived and developed in partnership with CWYD youth by Larisa Kasumagić, MA Cornell graduate from Zenica, BiH.

Michealina describes one of the innovative ways they hope to accomplish these goals: "The summer program is going to take place July 6-20th with the 18th, 19th, and 20th camping on Bjelasnica (mountain outside Sarajevo). We have a theatre�therapist�coming from Berlin to run the nonviolent communication and theatre portion of the project." As part of the camp, the youth will also be challenged to seek ways to communicate the outcomes of this camp to the wider community when they leave.

These are also part of the goals of Anne and Michaelina. They cannot stay in Sarajevo forever, but they hope to leave behind them something that is self-sustaining, with the good multiplying, one woman and youth at a time. It seems like this is a goal they are achieving.

Mission Statement of the Center for Women and Youth Development in Sarajevo:

To embolden, educate, and motivate women and youth (including those affected by war) to achieve personal goals in the pursuit of financial stability, and to build community in an effort to create systemic, positive change for themselves, community, government and country -- ultimately leading to a unified Bosnian and Herzegovinian identity.

The present and future programs include:

Micro-Business in Sewing and Quilting
English Language Classes
Summer Camp "Growing up in Bosnia and Hertzevoginia
Youth Service Learning/Community Building Projects, the first major project being a web-based sexual health education and AIDS awareness project -- SEX S.O.S -- created and operated by 18-year old Mirza Durmisevic and 22-year-old Kenan Semsovic: www.sexsos.ba

With the Wings of Hope connections, the Center seeks to bring in counselors and additional staff and volunteers to eventually offer:

Personal and family counseling and professionally facilitated support groups
Economic empowerment/vocation education programs, such as job readiness and placement, micro-business development, mentoring and tutoring, vocation certifications, etc.
Youth healing and building of a cross-cultural BiH identity, as in the Summer 2009 Youth Camp
Youth job and business development projects, including a youth-run coffee shop, after-school tutoring, sexual health, drugs and alcohol prevent and support groups, etc.
Community building initiatives, including community garden, arts classes and events, festivals, recreation
Civic leadership awareness and development
Conflict resolution and mediation skills building
Nutrition of the Mind, with classes with the University of Sarajevo
Health & Fitness, nutrition, yoga, meditation, recreation, etc.

All programs build community among the members first, then as they gain skills, confidence, and feelings of self-worth, they are guided into re-entering society as leaders and business owners.

Through service learning, apprenticeships, and community projects, they will individually and collectively help develop Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) economically as their activities contribute to building a unified national civic identity.

The Situation of Women in Sarajevo
Most international and local NGOs and governmental organizations in BiH have catered to the needs of male war survivors. Women tend to be isolated and receive much less attention, assistance, and services.

Of the 2008 female population of Sarajevo, 63% were displaced from eastern Bosnia by the war: 42% live in alternative accommodation or temporary shelters, and 85% are unemployed and live below the poverty line.

Even more drastic is the situation of the survivors of war-time rape and the concentration camps -- 99% of these women were either widowed or abandoned by their husbands and left to care for their children alone. They are even more likely to live in alternative accommodations or temporary shelters, and they are often in constant fear of eviction. They usually lack proper health care and insurance, are financially unstable, and often work within the confines of the "gray" economy.

In conclusion, women survivors are forced to fend for themselves, and thus they need educational, vocational, leadership, business skills, and renewed confidence and emotional support to meet their basic needs.

Women's Major Issues:

Displacement from family networks, culture, traditional roles, support, and personal identity
Displacement from home villages/towns with few social or financial support systems
Dependence upon or need for government assistance
Raising children alone without financial, emotional, or family support systems
Living below the poverty line
Few work skills (menial jobs) or are educated and skilled but face both sexual and age discrimination in looking for work
No personal connections to obtain chance for jobs, which are necessary
At risk of prostitution and sex trafficking
Experience of sexual harassment and domestic violence

Youths' Major Issues:

Learning problems/low school performance
At risk for continuing the cycle of poverty, criminal activity (including drugs and alcohol), and contracting and spreading sexually transmitted diseases
Socialization issues
Alienation from peers
Rejection by society
Low self esteem
At risk of prostitution and sex trafficking
Experience sexual and domestic violence

Youth Summer Day Camp
June 15-July 10, 2009
“Growing up in Bosnia-Herzegovina”. Inter-ethnic and inter-religious youth community engagement program fostering friendship building and religious tolerance amongst youth ages 13-18 and university aged mentors.

Summer Camp Activities
• Nonviolent communication workshops/seminars
• Photography and documentary film making
workshop
• Focus groups and small group discussions
• Creation of group memory through theater therapy
• Peace building through friendship development
• History of peaceful coexistence in BiH

Outcome: Participants will be given the opportunity to gain funding through mini-grants to create and
implement peace and service-learning projects within their home communities in an effort to build, spread and
sustain tolerance within BiH.

Wings of Hope's
Centar za razov Zena I mladih
Center for Women and Youth Development -- CWYD

WoH Mjedenica 9
CWYD Hamdije Kresevljakovica 60/2
Sarajevo 71000 BiH
011-387-206-706

Director of Operations: Mersiha Sestic
Director of Marketing and Fundraising: Azra Bogucanin
Advisor on Development: Michaelina Jakala
Advisor on Programming: Anne Parish

The Center is run in some ways similar to a coop, with the women and youth who are served are also voting members, assisting in the direction and service offerings/programming.

The Center has a citizens advisory Board of Directors.

If You Want to Get Involved
The Center has been approved for CAF America funding:http://www.cafamerica.org/dnn/AboutUs/SolutionsandCosts/SingleDonorAdvisedGift/tabid/111/Default.aspx This allows Americans to donate to the organization and receive a tax deduction as a charitable donation. �CAF America only accepts donations of $500 or more due to processing fees. A donation of $500 allows the Center to provide funding for one program for several months. �If you would like to donate please go to the CAF America website which should have updated our information by next week. �Please search for Fondacija za pomoc zrtvama rata Krila nade (Foundation for Aiding Victims of War: Wings of Hope). �If you have any questions regarding donating please email us at info@cwyd.ba.

Thanks!!!!!