Partners: Caritas Italiana, and Secours Catholique.
Beneficiaries: Family Association of War Victims in BiH (the former prisoners of concentrate camps and the families of missing persons) - 22 Associations; heads of NGOs and activists - about 80, War Victims and their families - members of associations (about 2000 indirect beneficiaries).
Duration: 12 months (1. January - 31 December 2008).
Goals:
Type of action: Education for the managerial tasks and non-violence through the interactive workshops, financing projects through public calls, networking with NGOs of various areas and different ethnic origin.
Total value of project: 198,446.33 KM / € 101,464.00.
Activities in this area started in 2003. To the present, 3 projects have been implemented which were mainly to assist NGOs in the education, financial, psycho-social field and networking. The project for 2008 was the least financially, but it achieved good results. Beneficiaries were the 22 Association of Victims of War (the former camp inmates and the families of missing persons) from all three constituent peoples in BiH. Selection of the beneficiaries has been done in cooperation with the Unions with the criteria as defined Caritas BC BH. Memorandum of Cooperation was signed with each beneficiary and beneficiaries were divided into 2 groups (advanced and the new associations).
For the new associations we organized 6 workshops (conflict management, writing and project work in a team). Between 10 and 15 persons were present at each of the workshops and trainers or facilitators were Caritas BC BH staff. Based on the final check, it can be concluded that the users were satisfied with the program.
For advanced associations 4 workshops were organized (strategic planning and public relations) and the topics were selected in consultation with the users and therefore were extremely helpful. In addition, possibility to apply for funds was given to the advanced FAs. Total of 9 new projects of economic character were financed (green house, photo and video services, agriculture machines, etc.). These projects were intended for members of NGOs (the victims) and a portion of the profits made were bound to return to their association to cover the minimum costs. Projects have been received and processed by the Commission from Caritas and the approval for funding was made in cooperation with donors. Caritas staff BK BiH has created monitoring for each project - visits directly to the field, access to documentation and photographs.
At the end of the project, the final conference was organised with all involved entities and representatives of the Unions. Joint and enhance until now done in the past 5 years. Presentation was made on the results achieved and difficulties Caritas was facing with and the participants were able to give their comments on the presentation.
Based on the comments received at the final conference and the past experience, a new project proposal was prepared and was submitted to donors, pending their approval. In the new project we plan to start working with another generation of victims (children), and restart the psycho-social support, and joint media campaign.
Actual results:
Plan for 2009
Caritas staff BC BH designed a new project proposal, based on past experience and based on the needs presented by the Director's Association. The project includes education, financing of mini-projects, anti-stress program and work with the second generation of victims (children). The project has been submitted to Caritas France (Secours Catholique).