Mevludin Mehić and his wife Abida left secure and well-paid jobs in Sarajevo and returned to their family property in a village about twenty kilometres from Srebrenica. The beginning was difficult, but today they work hard, live well and are satisfied with the life they have built.
About twenty kilometres from Srebrenica, near the mountain pass Kragljivoda, on the road descending toward the Drina River and Lake Perućac, the village of Gladovići is located in the Osatregion, an area widely known for its builders and craftsmen. The famous Bosnian-Herzegovinian writer Ivo Andrić wrote about them in his story “Osatičani” and they even have their own “secret” language proposed for inclusion on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
“I left my home village for Bratunac when I was fourteen to attend high school,” Mevludin Mehić, known among friends as Brko, told N1.
“After finishing school, I found a job there, got married, had children and lived there until the war began. When the war ended – may it never return to anyone’s home – we continued our lives in Sarajevo. My wife and I worked, educated our children and built a house. I worked in construction and earned good money. At that time my daily wage was between 100 and 150 BAM. But the heart pulls you back, and in 2011, for the first time after the war, I returned to see my home village. Only a few residents had come back. Everything was destroyed and overgrown with weeds and bushes.”
At the time he did not intend to return permanently, and he had nowhere to return to anyway. They began visiting occasionally for rest and to enjoy the beautiful view of the lake and the Drina. They planted a few crops and slowly started rebuilding the house. Eventually, realizing he could not work in physically demanding construction his whole life, Mevludin made a decision.
He returned alone, while his daughter, son and wife remained in Sarajevo. His wife could not leave her job because she would lose the conditions required for retirement.
Life without Electricity or Outside Help
“Everything was overgrown with thorns and ferns, and the house was unfinished. I had spent all my money, the land was uncleared, and I didn’t even have a barn to keep livestock. There were moments when I thought about giving up and going back to Sarajevo, but then I remembered my father, who worked in construction his entire life.
Once I worked with him for thirty days in Herceg Novi and didn’t swim in the sea even once. My father supported seven children and his own parents. He ate pâté and cheap salami just so he could buy land. This land was paid for with sweat and sacrifice – how could I abandon it? Thinking about my father’s sacrifices pushed me to endure and stay,” Brko says.
Mevludin built his house himself, without any assistance or donations, while many others whose houses were rebuilt with donations later sold everything and moved back elsewhere in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A year later his wife left her job in Sarajevo and joined him. A neighbor suggested that he start raising sheep. He bought thirteen and began roasting lamb.
“I started from nothing. I didn’t even have a spit or a meat-cutting machine. But little by little that year I roasted and sold about thirty lambs. The business proved profitable, so I bought the necessary equipment and built a shed and roasting facility. Good news travels fast, and soon orders for weddings and other events started arriving from all sides.
In the second year I delivered more than eighty lambs, and the following year about 230. Now I don’t even count anymore because we can hardly keep up with the demand. Besides roasting lamb, I also produce dried and smoked meat. My traditionally prepared dried mutton is shipped across Europe – to Germany, Austria, even Finland and Denmark,” Mevludin says with a satisfied smile.
He built a large barn with all necessary facilities. At first he knew little about sheep breeding, but through practice and reading he learned the basics of genetics. Today he owns a flock of more than one hundred high-quality purebred Sjenica sheep.
“I carefully select young rams to constantly refresh the bloodline. More than eighty percent of my sheep give birth to twins. Because of that, people often buy lambs from me for breeding. Buyers come from all over, from Sarajevo to Sapna. In a way I’ve also become a veterinarian. I give the sheep injections and tablets, trim their hooves and assist with lambing. I do most of it myself, and for vaccinations or anything I cannot handle, I call a vet,” he says.
Early Mornings and Hard Work
The working day for the Mehić family begins around four or five in the morning, regardless of whether it is raining or snowing. In addition to sheep, Abida and Mevludin also take care of a large number of poultry.
Their meat and eggs are in high demand because the animals are raised traditionally and fed only natural food, without concentrated feed or chemicals. Along with about a hundred chickens and guinea fowl, they also keep ducks, geese and turkeys.
Politics and People to Blame for Empty Villages
They do all the work themselves because they cannot find anyone willing to help.
“Today in Bosnia we have reached a point where people living in villages go to the market to buy eggs and vegetables instead of producing them at home, the way their ancestors did for generations,” Mevludin says.
Asked about the increasingly empty villages around Srebrenica and young people leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina, he replied:
“Politics is partly to blame, but so are the people themselves. Last summer I was looking for someone just to sit with me for three hours while I roast lamb and help if needed. I offered 50 BAM and no one wanted the job. My neighbor Enver once offered 1,500 BAM a month, food and accommodation to someone to look after his goats, but he couldn’t find anyone.”
Happy for the First Time in 20 Years
Mevludin’s brother Dulan is a successful businessman and innovator in the United States and deserves a story of his own. Speaking about his brother, he says he is proud of him.
“In 1992 he had the chance to choose which country to go to, but he refused and returned to Srebrenica. In 1999 I invited him to America, but he refused again. He lived in Sarajevo, worked hard and built his life. When he had achieved everything, he decided to return to Gladovići, the village he left in 1978. Many people criticized him for that decision, even I disagreed at first, but he was persistent. Many people who never left Srebrenica refuse even to visit their birthplace, but he returned there to live.I visited him in Gladovići for the first time in 2016 and saw that he was happy and smiling after twenty years. I had never seen him smile like that in Sarajevo. He was always quiet and looking down. Only then did I realize how happy he truly was living where he was born.”
For Mevludin, this is not just a job but the fulfillment of a dream he carried for years. The peace he found in Gladovići, he says, is priceless.
His greatest satisfaction is not money but the freedom to live and work on his own land.
“It isn’t easy to be in the barn day and night when the sheep are lambing, but that feeling cannot be compared to anything the city offers. I don’t wait for anyone’s charity. I live from the work of my own hands. The only support that truly matters is human kindness – a warm word, a greeting from a neighbor, and the coffee I drink with my wife or anyone who stops by.”
To young people thinking about leaving the country, Mevludin has a message:
“Don’t run away from your family land. Happiness and success don’t have to be somewhere far away. They can be found right here, on your own doorstep. Choose a job, dedicate yourself to it wholeheartedly and be persistent.”, N1 writes.
