BiH High School Students Offer Solutions to the Problems in Their Local Community

Federal Ministry of Education and Science of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the local association “Infohouse” organized 6th annual “Volunteer-Finance” fair in order to present the results of last year’s Social day. Social day is a part of Infohouse’s “Volunteer-Finance” project and aims at giving high school students all over Bosnia and Herzegovina an opportunity to work for one day in their local community. However, instead of getting paid, students’ per diems are deposited into an account especially created to fund projects students want to see realized in their communities.

This year’s fair was attended by over 600 students from 107 high schools, coming from 40 different cities in BiH. Together, they raised over 33.000KM (cca. $22.000). Students had the opportunity to volunteer in close to 500 different private and public companies, NGOs, and government institutions. Federal Ministry of Education and Science was the biggest employee, housing 150 students during the Social Day in October of last year.

At the fair, students offered 107 different projects aimed at solving variety of issues their local communities and youth are faced with, ranging from environmental protection and conservation of the local forests, theater, youth camps, and the preservation of local culture and traditions. The Mayor of each participating municipality will receive a booklet containing projects initiated by the students in order to financially support their realization.

“Volunteer-Finance” was started in 2007 with the idea of strengthening the capacity of BiH youth and enabling them to take responsibility for their future, while interacting with their local community to promote solidarity, volunteerism, and general work ethics. So far, over 7000 students took part in this project, raising total of 130.000KM (cca. $87.500).

Creative Commons Love: mtsofan on Flickr.com

Written by Aldina Dzebo