They are eco-activists, local politicians, hikers, village housewives, and they have one thing in common: they show by personal example that even in small places you can live nicely, if nature is preserved.
Their contribution to the survival and progress of small communities was also recognized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Author: Milkica Milojević
Within the project “Women Guardians of the Green Krajina”, the Foundation will present six persistent and creative women from Jezero, Pljevlja near Šipovo, Kupres in Republika Srpska, Martin Brod, Bosanski Petrovac and Drvar, who remained faithful to their homeland even when others gave up.
Each in their own way, they are fighting for the preservation of nature, because they are convinced that clear rivers, forests and clean air are the greatest capital and pledge for a secure future.
Small places with a big story
Because of these reasons, some of them bravely opposed powerful and unscrupulous investors, while others worked hard and made great ideas, making their small places a big story.
Who, after all, would have heard of Jezero, a small rural municipality on the border of the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, if the agile and energetic mayor Snežana Ružičić was not at the head of that Municipality.
As Srpskainfo previously wrote, Ružičić skillfully used the fact that one crater on Mars was named Jezero, precisely after this Municipality on the river Pliva. And when the NASA rover landed on Mars in February, right in the Jezero crater, the whole world heard about the Jezero Municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of course, the mayor skillful in marketing made sure that was the case.
– We did not fall from Mars to miss such an opportunity – said Ružičić, who recently received the “Večernjak’s seal” for the accomplishment of the year.
She has big plans for her hometown, and all of those plans include ecologically sustainable agriculture and tourism.
They didn’t fall from Mars
The people of Petrovac did not fall from Mars either. They showed this by protesting to prevent a waste incinerator from being opened in Bosanski Petrovac.
Although she modestly claims that she is only one of the many citizens of this Municipality who are outraged by the unscrupulous attack on clean air and a healthy life, Sanja Stojanović, a local activist and hiker, is most deserving of the fact that investors, determined to build an incinerator, were “expelled” from Petrovac.
And Živana Sabljić was at the head of the group for months, which drove 410 tons of waste from Drvar, imported from Italy and illegally deposited in this and neighboring municipalities. Srpskainfo has been reporting on the Italian waste affair for months, but the public is not aware that this is not the first “rebellion” in which Sabljić actively participated and that she had serious problems because of her activism.
Slobodanka Vasić, a village housewife from Pljeve near Šipovo, near the source of the Pliva, also struggles with problems every day. She is struggling, but she says that it is not difficult for her, because she is happy that she can earn a decent living on her property, in the middle of untouched nature.
Family property
In her “Household at the End of the World”, Slobodanka welcomes tourists, offering them homemade food, which she prepares herself, and a place to stay in her house with the sounds of Pliva river.
The household of Marija Reljić is not at the end of the world, but it is at the beginning of the magical Una, in Martin Brod, near one of the most beautiful Una waterfalls, Milančev buk.
For decades, she has been patiently and lovingly improving the family property, where a special attraction is the old mill and an old, ecological washing machine, which washes without electricity and detergent. There, she welcomes tourists, to whom, in addition to demonstrating the work of washing machine, she also offers juices, schnaps, jams – which she makes herself.
The sixth woman in this series, Jovana Kureljušić, lives at the end of Krajina, in Kupres in Republika Srpska, a small rural municipality without water supply network, public buildings, companies… She is the deputy mayor of the Municipality, which has done many small but important things in just a few months, improving life of residents in Kupres.
Of course, protecting the most beautiful things they have – green pastures and clean air.
THE PROMOTION THEY DESERVE
Within the project “Guardians of the Green Krajina”, six women will be publicly promoted with appropriate texts, photos and videos. According to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in BiH, this will contribute to their successful continuation of the fight for their goals.
– We believe that these women, who live in small marginalized communities, deserve to be heard and recognized for the work they do – says Merima Ejubović, research associate at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in BiH.
Photos and videos, produced as part of the project, will be available to these women and they will be able to use them in the media and promotional materials for their activities. In this way, the potentials of the places where they live will be promoted.
