Bosnia and Herzegovina’s children and their dreams for a better future
by Ira Rakovic and Berina Ceribasic
Stronger Voice for Children
Have you ever wondered how many children are deprived of basic living conditions every day — such as enjoying a crust of bread topped with sweet jam or a small glass of milk? How many kids today have no warm socks and enough clothes to keep them warm? Perhaps their parents will somehow manage to provide them with some food today. But what about the children’s dreams? What if they never get to escape their beautiful heads and become reality at any point?
I often think about a story I heard a few years ago about a little girl who lives with her parents in a village near Zenica. They live in an old family house. Her mother is a housewife, and her father is unemployed. She has an older, 18-year-old brother who is in high school. Their parents earn money and feed their children by picking seasonal fruits, mushrooms, or gathering wood. During winter, the off-season, parents collect iron and would do anything to feed their family. Next to the house, they have a small garden. The girl has her own room, with two sofas and a table. She does not like to play inside the house, so she spends most of her time outside playing with friends. She would like to enroll in a music school, something that scares her mother because they have no financial means to help the little girl continue her education.
This is just one story, but applies to thousands of children in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The story of children whose families cannot provide basic living conditions. Maybe this does not seem too important now, but not going to school will define this girl’s future. It will define the non-realisation of her youthful dreams. If she continued her education, she would have the chance to become an excellent, well known artist in her home town and maybe even beyond. Maybe she would get to teach other children to play and to love music they way she does.
The City of Zenica adopted their first action plan for children
“The biggest challenge today is the financial crisis, and the most vulnerable victims of this crisis are children. In the aftermath of financial crises, the biggest mistake is to cut the budget for children, their education, play and mobility. If we want to invest in the future, we must invest in children. All children must be included in the process of developing their future. They have many rights, and one of those rights is the right to build the future. It is therefore necessary to allocate more money to children. “ — Jan Van Gils
Investing in children means investing in the future. This is the slogan that coins every activity entailed in the project “Investment in children” supported by Save the Children since 2013, which focuses on the most vulnerable children, trying to improve their situation by identifying their real needs and the budget allocated to them. The organizations member of the national coalition Stronger Voice for Children try to animate the public, parents, children, political structures, and local authorities, all with one goal: increasing the visibility of children and their budgetary needs.
As local communities represent the key to identifying the necessities of children, we started to work with municipality officials in order to create local action plans for children through which we could address their needs and identify the funds needed for improving the situation of children’s rights.
In April 2016, we enjoyed our first official success, as the City of Zenica adopted their first action plan for children. The cities of Banjaluka, Modriča and municipality Novi Grad Sarajevo are just a step away from this.
Children participation
The most valuable segment of our work on this subject concerns children’s direct participation. Children themselves conducted research with their peers in order to assess what are the real needs of children in local communities. The research was conducted with 500 children, their peers, and, once data was analysed, recommendations were made that became an integral part of the local action plans for children in all communities involved. Children also came up with advocacy messages, recorded radio jingles, organized public events, and are currently working on the organization of panel discussions in four cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Child participation in politics is not very common. Children are perceived as incapable of getting involved in such demanding work. Still, they managed to surprise everyone back in November 2014. A public hearing was under way in city of Modriča concerning the municipality’s draft budget for the year 2015. The general public does not regularly participate in such meetings, and hence seeing a child attending these is particularly strange. But that day, several children attended as part of our “Investment in Children” project. During the course of public hearings one child stood up and asked for permission to speak, which resulted in the total silence of a very surprised audience. No one expected any children to be taking part in such an event, not to mention going as far as asking questions. The chairman gave this little girl the permission to speak and the question she asked was related to budget allocations in sport- first, she asked why is there insufficient budget allocated to sport in general, and, second, why is there more money spent on volleyball and football compared to all other sports. Her remark was included in the official minutes of this public hearing.
Children from all groups included in our project organized actions in their communities in order to engage public in whole process. They made workshops with children and informed the public about the importance on investing in children. They were supported by famous people from community — actors, musicians and athletes, such as Amel Tuka, the best Bosnian athlete.
On 22nd of June 2016 in Zenica, the children from Children’s parliament Zenica held a panel discussion in the city’s library on the topic of “Investing in children in local community — children’s perspective”. They talked about education, preschool education, sport culture and free time in Zenica and generally in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also hosted representative of the Association of High School Students as sample of successful child participation. About 50 children and adults were presented on panel discussion, together with representatives of Save the Children.
The implementing organizations from the Network — “Naša djeca” Zenica, “Budućnost” Modriča, “Zdravo da ste” Banjaluka and “Naša djeca” Sarajevo certainly hope to make many more such surprises, together with children, for children!
