The June story about youth workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina takes us to the Association for prevention of addiction NARKO-NE and Azra Halilović. Azra finished primary and secondary school in her hometown of Tešanj, and acquired the title of bachelor of social work at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo, at the Department of Social Work.
During her student days, Azra started volunteering in the Association for prevention of addiction NARKO-NE and took the first steps towards youth work, which she is doing professionally today.
During my studies, I started volunteering at the Association for prevention of addiction NARKO-NE and I’m actually sorry that I didn’t start earlier, because volunteering opens up so many new opportunities that you don’t even know exist. After volunteering, I was offered an internship at the Association in a program that included working with young people, specifically high school students. Honestly, at that moment, my intention and desire was just to finish that internship, I didn’t think long-term about working in NARKO-NE or with young people in general. Through the programs and activities that we developed and implemented with young people, I realized that my professional engagement can and should last in this direction.
As an employee, the Association gave her the opportunity to upgrade her existing knowledge and experience in the field in which she works. In 2017, Azra attended the Training for Professional Associates for Youth Work organized and conducted by the Institute for Youth Development KULT.
Azra says that the training left an energetic impression on her due to its professional and at the same time relaxed approach, and adds that the training can help anyone who wants to work with young people in any way. She points out that the training came at the right time.
If someone does not have experience, the training will certainly give him/her the basics for work, exchange of experiences with other colleagues, new ideas for youth work, a lot of positive energy, and for those who have no experience in youth work. The training can further help them analyze themselves and their work and also share experiences and ideas with other colleagues. Shortly after I started working in the Association for prevention of addiction NARKO-NE, I started working with young people. And just when you need to get acquainted with everything that youth work brings with it and what youth work encompasses, you get a structured, systematic and detailed approach, so all you have to do is indulge and absorb all the knowledge and training methods. You go through the basic things that are important, not only for working in the youth sector, but in life in general, from communication, organizational skills and various other competencies that everyone really needs. Even before the training, I worked with young people and was a youth worker, and the training gave me a professional title – professional associate for working with young people.
Azra says that today she is where she was when she was a training participant for professional youth associate, but with much more experience and knowledge.
During several years of work in the Association, I worked with many young people from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Education, trainings, interactive workshops, outdoor camps are the ways I work with young people. Always something new and different. We empower and strengthen them, we help them build themselves into better personalities. To fill their free time with quality time, to use their potentials, their talents, to be self-confident, independent. We prepare various contents for young people, but we also create and realize them together with them. And that’s what I especially like – working with young people in non-formal education. That we can develop new ideas, that we are not limited by some established plan and program.
In Azra’s opinion, insufficient cooperation and connection between the competent institutions and young people is an important factor that negatively affects the situation in the youth sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“They say that when you are young, everything is easy, and here in BiH everything is upside down. That is why the indicators of the departure of young people are growing from year to year. Again, I generally think that nowadays it is an advantage for young people that there really is a large number of associations and organizations in which they can get involved, learn and develop, because very often they lack that through formal education. “There is still not enough cooperation and connection between the competent institutions and young people, which is really sad because I see every day how much potential, will and desire young people have and it should be used, young people should be given opportunities to prove themselves,” said Azra.
Azra says that young people today are either too active or not active at all, and adds that there is no middle ground.
It is commendable that a large number of young people are really active, engaged in various, youth and other initiatives. I would advise young people to find something that fulfills them and to enjoy it. Not to blindly follow all the trends that come and go, to be their own person. They don’t have to be involved in many activities, have hobbies that their friends or role models have. I would add that they analyze what is available to them through social networks and on a daily basis through various channels and take a critical approach to it. It’s easy to blindly follow a crowd, but it’s much more fun to follow yourself.
It is difficult for her, as she says, to imagine herself in the future, somewhere in a certain period, but she adds that life is such that it constantly gives us new challenges and temptations.
“And when we plan something for ourselves, the opposite often happens. Which is okay, because I think that we should not stick to the established path, if we open new paths on which we can progress and achieve more, it is only important that we do not get lost on that journey and know what goal we set. So, in a couple of years, I still see myself in this field, working directly with young people or indirectly developing and implementing new programs for young people. But again, who knows what tomorrow will bring us”- concludes Azra Halilović, a youth worker whose story once again confirms that quality people dedicated to the job they have chosen work in the youth sector in BiH.
