WORLD VISION

Preparing return to Republika Srpska

World Vision is in charge of running a combined reconstruction and job creation project in three Open Cities in Republika Srpska: Srbac, Laktasi and Celinac. The project is being funded by the European Commission's Obnova programme and is due to be completed in the near future.

by Nail Osmancevic

Funding secured in time

Project supervisor Zeljko Petrovic, who works in World Vision's Banja Luka office, says funding was secured in time to ensure that the project got off to a good start. One scheme that received World Vision support was a project to refurbish a dilapidated school in Celic. The school was in a particularly bad state of repair as it had been used as an accommodation centre for refugees. But now it boasts five modern new classrooms and is being used for its intended purpose once more. At the school's reopening ceremony tributes were paid to both the European Commission and World Vision for the work they had done.

World Vision has also overseen the reconstruction of Celic's municipal heating system. The organisation is also working to rebuild fifty-five houses in and around Celic most of which have been earmarked for returning refugees form the Bosniak minority. It is expected that work on the houses will be completed before the end of the summer although some are already being lived in.

Displaced families to apartments, returnees to their houses

In Laktasi reconstruction work is already underway in one unfinished apartment building, says engineer Zeljko Petrovic. Once it is completed, forty-eight comfortable new apartments will be made available as temporary accommodation for displaced Serb families. Houses currently being occupied by displaced Serbs can then be freed up for returning Bosniak and Croat families. The apartment block will be finished in late June this year.

In Trn, one of the largest settlements in Laktasi municipality, a brand new medical complex has been built including an emergency room, state of the art laboratories and a paediatric department.

In Srbac, World Vision assistance helped to rebuild the local heating system, a vital resource for the town's textile factory, high school and other public buildings. Elsewhere in the town the organisation has helped to build new riverbank fortifications and an access road and swing gate at the border crossing with Croatia.

In nearby Kobas, twenty houses are being rebuilt and will serve as temporary accommodation for displaced Serbs from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. When the work is finished in late June, the Serbs will be able to move in, freeing up houses belonging to displaced Bosniaks in the Federation BiH.

In April this year, eleven houses in Kobas were rebuilt in order to accommodate Bosniaks and socially endangered families. All of the houses are now occupied.

Economic support and job creation

Rebuilding houses and infrastructure also offers important job opportunities for the region's unemployed ­ a fact of which World Vision is only too well aware. Since August 1998 the organisation has been running a number of schemes that employ local people in Laktasi, Celinac and Srbac.

Elsewhere, 66 farming families have received donations from World Vision that will help them take up a wide variety of agricultural activities including pig breeding, honey production and producing fruit and vegetables in plastic green houses.

Most of the beneficiaries of the World Vision funds participated in seminars held by economic and agricultural experts who explained the rudiments of running a successful business. So far some 160 jobs have either been created from scratch or reactivated, thanks to the scheme. World Vision says that the job creation schemes are doubly useful as they also serve to reintegrate returnees into local communities.

A different model of economic development

The creation of agricultural co-operatives is another way of stimulating economic activity in rural areas. World Vision is currently working on a scheme to set up multi-ethnic cooperatives in the region around Celic. Farmers wishing to benefit from the project will have to demonstrate that they are willing to take part in such a joint venture. It is hoped that the cooperatives will help to improve the overall quality of agriculture in the region and also provide resources to enable farmers market their produce. Farmers who are accepted to take part in the scheme will receive livestock, agricultural machines and tools to help them start up in business. World Vision believes the scheme will be a success as it encourages participants to cooperate both with each other and with the local authorities.

For more information:
World Vision
tel.: + 387 71 204 415
fax.: + 387 71 204 418