Viva Žene

This morning we met with a women´s NGO in Tuzla which provided therapy and psychosocial support to women and children during the war (but now also provides services to men and families, particularly with regard to domestic violence issues).

At this meeting we were informed that there are still people living in ´refugee settlements´ in Bosnia because they cannot return to their homes where they lived before the war. I did not know that there were still internally displaced persons living literally in ´temporary´ encampments outside cities here in BiH. There are many children who have been norm and lived their whole lives in camps, they have never known any other life. Lejla, our translator, said she knew people had not returned to their homes, but she thought they were at least displaced to cities in places where they could have a chance to work and regain some semblance of a life. One of the requirements for Bosnia to join the EU is to have no more IDP (internally displaced persons camps) and to facilitate the return of these refugees to their homes (or to suitable habitation elsewhere).

The woman, Ina, with whom we met, described that there is no provision of food or clean water to the camps, and people are expected to provide for themselves. There is no work for adults, except for sporadic agricultural or construction work. Some of the camps have schools for the children; others have nothing for the children to do with their time. In some of the camps, the Dutch built small houses/shacks where people are living in large numbers. She only knew of 1 camp that can be reached via an asphalt road. The rest are ´in the middle of nowhere.´

This was very eye-opening, because the war ´ended´ 12 years ago. It boggles the mind to think that people have been living in refugee camps for 12 or more years, with no opportunities for returning to a normal life, to work, to school to their homes or families.


Here is me with Lejla, our translator whom we decided was so much more than a translator, so we have been calling her our "cultural emissary."