The municipal organization of the Red Cross Novo Sarajevo is based on the joint work of volunteers and other team members who strive to contribute to better life and health care, emphasizing adequate prevention, as well as selfless engagement in emergency situations. What puts the members of the Red Cross at the very epicenter of humanity is the encouragement of voluntariness, as well as the very feeling of general solidarity.
Asad Kučević, Secretary of the Red Cross Novo Sarajevo, commenting on the projects in which his organization takes part, stated that their goal is to strengthen the capacities of young people, and he specifically touched on the KA2 CBY Project “Safebook for safe young people”, which Serbia is realizing together with its partners. Beyond Borders – Italy, Idea for life – Poland, Youth Center “Perspektiva” – Albania, Red Cross Novo Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan Youth Innovation Forum – Jordan, and Euro – Med EVE Tunisia.
“The project “Safebook for safe young people” aims to promote a safety culture among young people through the new “Safebook manual in youth work, and in the field of youth safety”, Kučević points out, and adds that the manual was created through the Strategic Partnership in the field of youth 2021. in the organization of the Youth Establishment Club (KOM018) together with Beyond Borders and partners from Croatia and North Macedonia. The handbook was declared an example of good practice in the opinion of the Erasmus + Program.
Focus on non-formal education
Kučević stated that the project will provide youth workers and educators with new tools in the field of youth safety with a focus on five segments: peer violence, violence on the Internet, abuse of psychoactive substances, discrimination and mental health of young people, proudly pointing out that they are the only organization from our country which takes part in this international project. “Upon returning to the local community, our volunteers who attended international meetings transfer knowledge and methods, and expand, create and strengthen a network of informally educated young people,” Kučević stressed.
On the occasion of the International Youth Day on August 12, Red Cross Novo Sarajevo is organizing CK FEST from 2021 to promote the values and principles of the work of the Red Cross, with a special emphasis on youth engagement. Kučević says that this is a good opportunity to point out the needs and rights of young volunteers, and at the same time a day when we celebrate the achievements of young people and encourage them for their further active participation in society, and adds that animation and contact with young people are of crucial importance for CK FEST and children from the area of the municipality of Novo Sarajevo.
About the return of property from the Dubrovnik Riviera
After 30 years, the Novo Sarajevo Red Cross has regained ownership of its children’s resort in Lozica, a suburb of Dubrovnik. The Red Cross emphasizes that this resort has significant potential for the development and education of young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Boris Jovanović, president of the youth at the Red Cross in Novo Sarajevo, said that the Lozica resort has a strong perspective of being an international center that would be extremely important for young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina due to international exchanges and the adoption of new knowledge, and it followed on from the legal process that was took place, all with the aim of returning the resort to the ownership of the Novo Sarajevo Red Cross. “After a long-term process, a judgment was passed ordering the City of Dubrovnik to issue a tabular document allowing the registration of the ownership of the Municipal Organization Crveni križ Novo Sarajevo on the mentioned real estate,” Jovanović said.
He added that in the first phase, it is necessary to clean the buildings and close the doors and windows in order to prevent further dumping of garbage and waste, and then register the property as the property of the Municipal Organization Red Cross Novo Sarajevo. He reminded that as part of regular activities of working with children and young people, summer vacations were organized in this resort in the period from 1959 to 1991, when Dubrovnik was attacked, and he hopes that the rehabilitation of the buildings and the areas around them will bring them back to the condition they were in before the war. . “It is possible to organize the stay of children, young people, old and infirm people, disabled people and users who are cared for by the Red Cross organization in such renovated facilities,” Jovanović said.
Our interlocutor Jovanović also referred to the projects that the Red Cross Novo Sarajevo intends to implement in the near future, with a special emphasis on the education of staff and active members so that they can respond to the growing needs and demands, primarily when it comes to staff who manage the work of youth organizations Red Cross like primary and secondary schools, colleges and youth groups.
In addition, he emphasizes that the results achieved within the health sector through first aid training should not be ignored, and he points out that this program is significant for several reasons: in primary and secondary schools, we conduct mass training of young people, we recruit a significant number of young people from the Red Cross , we prepare them for the case of natural and other accidents, through quantitative and qualitative improvement of first aid training, we additionally increase citizens’ awareness, but also train them to react adequately in times of accidents. “In the planning period, we will pay special attention to cooperation with other social forces in charge of prevention, rehabilitation and elimination of the consequences of natural and other disasters, primarily with the Civil Protection Service and the Municipal Headquarters,” added Jovanović.
At the end of the conversation, Asad and Boris sent a joint message to young people, saying that informal education, in addition to formal education, is a very important segment of the development and upbringing of a young person, and invited future volunteers and other young people to follow the work of the Red Cross on social networks. “The Novo Sarajevo Red Cross is constantly enrolling new volunteers, and the youth structure is trying to design, initiate and implement various activities in order to raise the values and activism of young people to the highest and most efficient level”, – concluded Kučević and Jovanović.
Written by: Amir Barleci
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.
