The need for this kind of help is growing year after year. We are continuously receiving new requests for food assistance, according to the Pomozi.ba Association.
Poverty is not easily noticeable. Behind everyday life that looks completely normal are families and individuals who struggle to pay for food, housing, medication, and other basic expenses. For most people, a hot meal is a part of daily life that they don’t think about too much. For some citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it represents aid without which they would struggle to meet one of their basic human needs. Soup kitchens across the country provide daily meals to people who are in difficult financial situations. For these reasons, they play an important role in providing social assistance.
In an interview with “Dnevni avaz”, the spokesperson of the Pomozi.ba Association, Maja Arslanagić Hrbat emphasized that every day around 1,000 meals leave the kitchens of this association, intended for socially vulnerable people across Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Goodwill Restaurants in Sarajevo, Zenica, Travnik, and Bihać are open to all those who cannot afford quality and regular meals. While these restaurants provide a hot and free meal, they also play an important social role. We are trying to create a pleasant atmosphere where users can socialize, talk, and establish social contact that they often lack due to life circumstances and loneliness,” she pointed out.
Growing Need
A portion of the mail, as she adds, is delivered daily to the home addresses of elderly, frail, and bedridden individuals unable to come to their restaurants. In this way, assistance reaches the people who are often particularly vulnerable and whose mobility is severely limited.
“The need for this kind of help increases year after year. We are continuously receiving new requests for food assistance, which is why the users of the “Meal for All” project are constantly changing. Although we have been communicating the figure of around 1,000 meals daily for a long time, it is important to emphasize that this number does not always represent the same group of people. Some users in the meantime move to nursing homes, go for medical treatment, or, unfortunately, pass away. At the same time, new beneficiaries in need of assistance take their place,” our interviewee said.
It is important, she added, to emphasize that persons who turn to them for food aid are not automatically in the “Meal for All” project; instead, efforts are made to tailor the assistance to their actual needs and life circumstances.
“Some families have the capacity to prepare meals on their own, but due to low income, they struggle to secure enough food and basic groceries. In such cases, we provide aid through the “Monthly Packages” project, through which we are currently supporting around 270 families across Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In this way, we are trying to respond to different needs of the people who are in difficult financial situations – from daily hot meals to food delivery for those who cannot leave their homes, to monthly assistance in basic groceries,” stated Arslanagić Hrbat.
Vegetable Production
Merhamet spokesperson Ruždija Adžovć told “Dnevni avaz” that the humanitarian organization has 8, 000 users across Bosnia and Herzegovina, because they have 48 soup kitchens with distribution points throughout the country.
“The number of users increased with time, especially during the coronavirus pandemic when people lost their jobs. After that, the social and economic situation continued to deteriorate, and people seek help from Merhamet every day, and I assume from other humanitarian organizations as well,” he said.
Besides the 8,000 regular users of soup kitchens, Merhamet, as he added, helps around 30, 000 more people through various forms of assistance.
“These are food packages with hygiene supplies, distribution of Qurbani meat, and vegetables from our farm near Zavidovići. We produce around 80 tons of vegetables annually there, which are used for our soup kitchens, distributed, and so on,” Adžović states.
The users include the unemployed, retirees, and low-income individuals.
“There are various categories. The number of socially vulnerable users of our aid is increasing, but not so drastically, because Merhamet offers aid according to its capacities. The state has its function and should help and care for those people. Merhamet does a good portion of those tasks instead of official institutions – in fact, it serves as help to improve the social situation and preserve people’s dignity,” Adžović said.
The State Helps Little
He emphasized that Merhamet has mostly managed to renovate its soup kitchens and facilities, and they have excellent conditions.
“The state helps very little there. Thank God, Merhamet has its donors from the diaspora and locally through certain projects. Generally, we don’t have permanent budget funding, but rather through projects,” he said.
He added there are many people who are ashamed to register for soup kitchens, even though they need help.
“They have their dignity, but there are such people in our neighborhood, and everywhere around us. You know what the situation is like, what the prices and inflation are like,” says Adžović, adding that soup kitchens exist in all major world cities and that is not “our invention.”
He emphasized that there are people who are in a state of social need for various reasons, due to job loss or other circumstances.
“We would be the happiest if there were no need for soup kitchens at all. As it stands, Merhamet helps according to its abilities,” Adžović said.
Difficult Situation
Amir Radeljaš, manager of the Stari Grad Soup Kitchen in Sarajevo, said they have 574 users in the regular kitchen who are selected through social work centers. He pointed out that they have a distribution point in Tarčin where they feed 140 beneficiaries, while the central kitchen is in Stari Grad.
“We have users from all municipalities of Sarajevo Canton. However, they are people who are in a state of need, who are not on the regular kitchen list. Now we also have slightly weaker donations with these price increases, but still, we turn no one away. Something is always found, a liter of oil, a canned good, a kilo or two of flour… The situation is difficult for everyone, including the Soup Kitchen,” he said.
He added that the relevant cantonal ministry provides everything needed for a hot meal for regular kitchen beneficiaries – beans, canned food, green beans, peas, djuvec (vegetable stew), tomato paste, potatoes, onions, Swiss chard… Also, he adds, regular beneficiaries got bread, fruit, and dry food for the weekend – practically everything they need.
Ramadan Donations
Radeljaš points out that they currently don’t have many donations.
“Winter is coming; people are buying pellets, coal, firewood. People manage somehow. We receive most donations around Ramadan. Based on that, we can help those who are not regular kitchen beneficiaries. Those are retirees with minimum pensions or when someone comes and says they have no income at all. We turn no one away; bless it, we give them a bag, a package, but that is not a long-term solution,” our interviewee emphasizes.
Three Merhamet Bakeries
Adžović points out that Merhamet also operates its own three bakeries.
“We have one in Tuzla, where the largest Merhamet kitchen is located. The kitchen feeds 3,400 to 3,500 people every day. The first Merhamet bakery was opened there, producing bread for beneficiaries. Later, another was opened in Goražde, and over half a year ago we opened a bakery in Srebrenica, where there was no bakery at all, so people also get free bread,” he said.
