Every fisherman (and maybe some fisherwomen) start their stories on the shore of the river or the sea, following their example through the lines of the text below, we bring you some positive energy from Lake Modrac. Our activist story begins in a small town, Prokosovići in the municipality of Lukavac, where, according to the last census from 2013, about 1,503 citizens were registered.
There, a group of women decided to start a local women’s association “Srce i Duša” in order to improve and bring changes at the local level.
Very active in their local community, these members of the association are guided by the principles that only a healthy, self-aware, independent, educated and persistent woman is the basic prerequisite for a healthy, prosperous and successful local community. They put women in the focus of their work . The relatively young association was founded in 2011 as a result of the volunteer activities of its members at the Local Community of Prokosovići. The focus of their work is the economic strengthening of women and their families, the protection of traditional values so that women have a greater degree of self-confidence.
From 2007 to 2011, we acted as an informal group of women who mainly worked on environmental activities. Cleaning of garbage, space in the local center of culture. Gathering women and socializing, and traveling. In 2008 , the Center for Ecology and Energy Tuzla came to our MZ and, with the support of the Swiss Association and the Municipality, built the first natural wastewater treatment plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They suggested us to register as an Association so that we could apply for some projects. And then in 2011, we became a formal legal association of women “Heart and Soul”. Since then, we have started our real activist work , emphasizes Amira.
Big changes require a leader who initiates action. This text would be much poorer if it weren’t for Amire Avdić, the president of this association, who herself decided to use her free time for philanthropic and activist activities.
The idea to engage in activism came from my high school days when, as a young girl, I joined KUD, and worked with a group of young friends to promote the cultural heritage of our region. After schooling and marriage, like every married woman at the time who worked 8 hours at work, I had to take care of my children and family. When the children grew up, my daughters, that’s when I started to notice that there are many problems in our MZ and that I, as a woman, and my neighbors, with my energy and uniqueness, can improve a lot of things. We got together and together decided to work on changes in the Ministry of Health, but also on ourselves. That’s when my activist work seriously begins to be a part of me and my life, Amira points out.
I met Amira a few years ago when I held a women’s empowerment workshop for her and the members of her association. I remember that I prepared a SWOT analysis [1] that I wanted to go through with them, and then Amira told me that they do the same every year to assess the needs of their local community. That’s when I realized how important it is for these women that the association works locally and that they work to make it nicer and better for all of them.
The members of the “Srce i duša” Association can be said to be the guardians of Jezera Modrac, which they have been looking after since the very foundation of the association. Ecology is an important segment of the association’s work, because these ecofeminists were the first to initiate the procurement of waste water purifiers for the local school, clean the landfill of garbage and build a park.
One of the first projects we did with the help of the Swiss Development Association was “Mothers’ Park” in the center of our MZ. We are proud of that project because we turned a garbage dump, in a very short period (17 days), into a park that is always full of children, young people and us adults. It is the first public area that is still used today for the gathering and entertainment of children, young people, as well as older citizens, both our Ministry of Health, and guests who very often stay in that area, especially in the summer , Amira tells us.
That ecologically grown products are important for health and environmental protection is also shown by the project initiated by the members of this association with CEE Tuzla. The project “Impact of climate change on agricultural production” – “Local development needs women’s initiative” brought together women engaged in agriculture and, with the help of agricultural experts, educated women on how to produce a healthy ecological product in a natural way.
Those women already have a recipe for the most delicious ajvar and plum jam, evaluated by eminent experts. Of course, we taught women that they must know how to value – appreciate their work and that they know how to appreciate what they produce, to give a realistic cost price of their ecologically produced product. Of course, in order to make the production process cheaper, they needed certain mechanization in order to be competitive on the market of domestic products, says Amira.
Through the “Healthy Together” project supported by the City of Lukavac, they are working on educating women on how to take care of their physical and mental health. They put a lot of focus on education and prevention of cervical cancer. It seems unreal that they managed to provide their users with even the most modern 3D mammogram , worth over half a million KM, for the Health Center in Lukavac. Before that, the women of this local community had to travel to other cities for check-ups, and now it is they who have contributed with their struggle to have women check-ups at the local health center.
One of the most important projects or our initiatives is the acquisition of the most modern 3D mammogram for the needs of our Health Center. On our initiative, which we launched with women, and for a very short period (3 months) with the help of the Mayor and the Public Health Center, a socially responsible company appeared that invested 500,000 KM for the purchase of the most modern 3D mammogram for the needs of the Health Center, that is, us women , concludes Amira.
Humanitarian programs and environmental protection are just some of the activities that these hard-working activists work on. In order to create a larger advocacy network of women from the municipality of Lukavac, they organized and joined the Coalition of Women’s Associations for the Advocacy of Equality, which was formed in 2022 in Živinice.
Aware of the risks of relying on donor funds, the hard-working activists of this association are turning to programmatic and economically sustainable mechanisms to support women in rural areas through the establishment of a cooperative. In this way, female entrepreneurs would have the opportunity to break into the market and provide themselves with the means for a better standard of living.
When it comes to support, it is needed in everything. We do not have the support of the government. Mostly their support goes to registered agricultural producers and the incentives are mostly given to the same people. We are located in an area where there are no donors to provide cheap machinery because our households are not returnees, and we all know that these are territories that, when necessary, made everything available to take care of the vulnerable people. Our factories were not working until recently. Many families had no income, no help, and then they had to manage as best they could. Many went to other promised lands with their bellies hungry. So support is needed. The potential exists, there are also hardworking men and women who want to engage in agriculture, but do not have adequate equipment. The estates remain uncultivated. The fruit perishes because there is no mechanization for processing. Last year, we started a story about the establishment of a cooperative where small agricultural producers could market their products. Maybe having secure customers, because more mass production could have its customers in retail chains, tourist facilities, etc., Amira confirms to us.
Messages of peace and equality are always easier to send through women’s festivals, so these activists decided to organize a feminist-activist festival this year for the first time under the name “FemFest” Lukavac Festival 2023. The festival is particularly interesting because it is a combination of feminist-activist, eco and entrepreneurial spirit. In this way, eco-activism, feminist values, but also the economic empowerment of women through the development of female entrepreneurship are valued.
The festival “FemFest” Lukavac 2023 resulted from the long-term successful activities of two organizations in the area of the City of Lukavac, so we decided to honor our members and partners with such a significant event. The festival is unique in its content in TK and what is particularly important is that for the first time a festival is taking place in our city that strengthens women’s activism and generally provides support to women from rural areas, so that they can realize their full potential. The content of the Festival itself has three segments: educational, exhibition and creative. The participants could discuss current social issues. Show the tourist offer of TK with a focus on the City of Lukavac, and the gastronomic offer, as well as examples of successful businessmen and women entrepreneurs.
The message of the Festival is “Together we celebrate successful and empowered women and let’s only show the way to self-empowerment with positive examples”, concludes Amira.
This hard-working leader who motivates all the women from her local community every day and does not take the smile off her face, invests the most important essence in her work, which is Love . At the very end of the conversation, Amira gives us one piece of advice worth its weight in gold. Do what you really love to do and persevere in it, knowing that everything that is difficult is also valuable, and everything that money can buy is worthless.
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Vildana Jackman , Master of Laws, long-time feminist and activist for women’s human rights. She has a master’s degree in International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Sarajevo. She is the author and co-author of over 30 authored texts, publications, researches and analyzes in the field of gender equality and women’s human rights. She published a collection of activist texts entitled: “Journey through activism…” which is a collection of peace and feminist texts. He considers writing a part of personal and public responsibility for changing social reality. He lives and works in Sarajevo.
[1] SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is one of the best known and most frequently used analyses. It is almost always created when creating strategies, business plans, investment studies, when applying for EU tenders, and is very often used in evaluating the characteristics of employees, teams, etc.
This story was written thanks to the generous support of the American people through the “Local Works” program of the United States Agency for International Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina (USAID). The content of the story is solely the responsibility of the author and the “Network for Building Peace”. The views expressed in the story do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
