On Friday, the Tuzla Community Foundation organized a traditional gathering in the Hashtag Autor Garden called “Business Coffee 4 – Talks about Entrepreneurship”. On that occasion, contracts were signed with the grant winners of the Entrepreneurship Fund. Over 50,000 BAM of support will be distributed for the best start-up ideas and income-generating activities of households.
This year, the Tuzla Community Foundation supported the development of six start-up businesses with a total amount of 30,000 BAM, while 19 people received support for the development of their household income activities in the field of agriculture and livestock, in the total amount of almost 22,000 BAM.
In addition to financial support, drivers of start-up businesses and income-generating activities for their households participated in a two-month cycle of free entrepreneurship education, after which they were given the opportunity to apply for financial support for their business plan with the support of professional mentors.
Dženana Žilić, the founder of the preschool institution “Zubić vila”, claims that the mentorship she received through this program means more than financial support: “It is fantastic that there are such projects. It really means so much for us who are trying to stay in BiH, because we want to do something here. I’ve worked a lot with children throughout my career, but I didn’t know much about entrepreneurship, so now I’ve learned what I need to fix and how to move on. In that sense, the mentorship I will have in order for my business to survive in the long run has a great meaning for me.”
The informal discussion on entrepreneurship was attended by young entrepreneurs, professional mentors, as well as successful entrepreneurs with many years of experience and successful careers in the business sector.
One of the lecturers and mentors in the program is Adem Azapagić, who has years of experience in this field: “This is the fourth generation of entrepreneurs in this program. From year to year, progress is visible. Additionally, the increased interest of candidates is visible. We focus primarily on entrepreneurial skills as a basis, and then on the skills needed to sustain a business, because it is not only important to start a business, it needs to survive too. In that sense, we will continue to work with candidates on mentoring, monitoring business development and introduction to the world of markets and real business.”
Emphasizing that social and economic development are inseparable, as well as the importance of creating a program that supports entrepreneurship, the Executive Director of the Tuzla Community Foundation Jasna Jašarević pointed out: “We found inspiration for the development of entrepreneurship programs in our active citizens, especially active young people we have been working with many years. With their social, but also economic engagement, they change their communities, their families and the whole society for the better. Economic development, as well as social development, does not happen by chance and there is no invisible force that creates jobs or better living conditions. Our activists and entrepreneurs know that. The entrepreneurial spirit that develops in the participants of our educational programs, their persistence and commitment, responsibility towards themselves and their families, willingness to take risks in this uncertain environment is exactly what we wanted to encourage and support through this program.”
The support is realized within the projects “Democratic and economic empowerment of underdeveloped communities in Tuzla Canton” and “Inclusive development of the Kiseljak community for improving the socio-economic aspect of citizens, especially Roma”, which the Foundation implements in partnership with the Freudenberg Foundation and financial support from the German Federal Ministry for External Development (BMZ).
