I spent my childhood running from one refugee shelter to another. After that, I spent my elementary and high school education in a post-war product called two schools under one roof, or basically an ethnically divided school with no interaction between us and them. I felt my whole identity and daily habits were based around this new reality of our part of town and their part of town, and our part of school and their part of school. Deep inside, I never accepted this reality. Being Divided is not
cool. Now, I am trying to erase borders created between communities in central Bosnia.
When I was 15, I started to dream about the real me. I dreamed about bringing the world to me, and myself to the world. So, I began to travel. Funnily enough, most of the time, I was the only Bosnian where I traveled. I really wanted to bring more of us to the world. Then life somehow took me back to my childhood. My first professional job, as you have probably guessed, was at a school in the divided community where I was born and raised. I worked with youngsters born after the war who were still deeply divided and isolated. I saw my own self in those youngsters and felt nothing had changed.
Again, I refused to accept that reality, so I decided to create new and positive change. I started by writing emails and letters to donors, small-scale projects, government agencies, and youth-led initiatives for local communities, both domestically and internationally, known and unknown. Our aim was to internationalize and connect rural youth with organizations able to provide training and access to international projects. Our hope was that this would bring us out of isolation and show youngsters the beauty of intercultural cooperation.
My work began to pay off. People became interested in the youth in central Bosnia, and we started to create partnerships across Europe. Like me 10 years ago, youngsters began to see how the world functions outside of their communities. Plus, the school I mentioned has become a model of intercultural and international cooperation, within just five years!
We somehow managed to change the mindset, even if just a little bit. Traveling, meeting others, and networking has become the new regular mindset of youngsters from small, isolated villages.
The lesson? Dream big, focus on the positive, work hard, and repeat.