A group of Belgian humanitarian workers dared to bring aid to children in Sarajevo in July 1995. Now, in this city, they call their second home, they reminisce about their first mission while receiving recognition for their work, which has continued for almost three decades.
It’s a May morning when journalists at the premises of the Association “Education Builds Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) – Jovan Divjak” await Jean-Francois Musin from the Belgian humanitarian association “Ecoliers du Monde.”
It all started during the war in BiH when Musin and his colleagues watched TV reports and read news about what was happening, recalls this humanitarian worker who worked as a teacher in a school for children with developmental difficulties in Belgium.
“We saw the situation in Sarajevo, and we in the association decided that we had to do something. We decided to help people, refugee families from BiH in Croatia, especially children,” he says.
At that time, Musin visited several cities in BiH, including Sarajevo.
“The first time I came here, I was in an armored vehicle, and it was chaos here in Sarajevo on the streets. There weren’t many people on the streets. I remember once we went to Bascarsija with sweets for the children, but there were few people there. Adults took sweets for the children, but it was chaos. It was unbelievable,” Musin recalls.
Before the start of the concert, the executive director and one of the founders of “Education Builds BiH – Jovan Divjak,” Edin Becarevic, said that the most deserving person for everything could not attend this event and asked those present to remember him with applause, without mentioning Divjak’s name, who passed away in Sarajevo in 2021. A thunderous applause was heard.
Jovan Divjak’s Legacy
“It’s been three years since he’s gone, unfortunately, people forget what he did for Sarajevo and BiH, especially the politicians in power,” says Becarevic, appealing to find a way to name a street in Sarajevo after Divjak.
The association, as he explains, primarily provides scholarships for children war victims, as well as children from the Roma ethnic minority or in social need, children with disabilities, and talented children. The association is firstly a moral and then material support for children, young people, and their parents or guardians in BiH.
Becarevic says he isn’t even aware that they’ve endured for this long with good results. He explains that over these 30 years, more than 60.000 mothers and children have utilized the association’s services. They have provided scholarships for 8.145 high school and university students, totaling over 80.000 monthly scholarships in 30 years. He also mentions that the association has partially renovated over 24 schools in the Federation through various projects, Detektor writes.
Photo: birn
E.Dz.
