EU funding has helped an entrepreneur from Bosnia and Herzegovina on her journey to build a business supporting the journeys of others
Azra Hodžić from Bosnia and Herzegovina has always been an enthusiastic traveller. Until the COVID-19 pandemic started, she travelled for business and for pleasure and visited numerous places. Travelling brings her joy, and a trip to Berlin a few years ago also became the unexpected starting point for a new business endeavour.
Azra was looking for a backpack that she could use on this trip but also when back home. She couldn’t find anything that would fit her specific needs, so as soon as she was back in Sarajevo she designed something that would serve her purpose, and sewed it together with her father.
”They all gave me compliments on the backpack and asked where I got it from. When I told them that I made it, a friend asked if I could make one for her.”
This first backpack that Azra designed and sewed with her father had a simple design, but it was just what she needed. It was immediately noticed by her colleagues at the company where she was working. “They all gave me compliments on the backpack and asked where I got it from. When I told them that I made it, a friend asked if I could make one for her,” says Azra.
After this first order, other requests followed, until Azra realised that this could be turned in to a good business. She launched a social media page where she advertised models in a range of designs. She also came up with a very creative idea how to call her business. Ranac means ‘backpack’ in Bosnian, and St stands for ‘saint’. That was the reason for the name of Azra’s company ST RANAC, but Azra also saw that when you connect the two words you get another meaning. Stranac in Bosnian means ‘foreigner’.
The business went well for two years, with Azra designing and her father sewing. But with a constant increase in orders, Azra had to find a solution to be able to expand further. She lacked proper business management training, equipment and support for marketing and advertising.
“Before, I could not buy a serious amount of raw material as I depended on cash flow. With the support from the EU, I moved to the next level. Now I can respond to higher demand from clients and am ready to become a big company “
About EU4Business
EU4Business aims to stimulate the development of entrepreneurship, export-oriented sectors, tourism and agriculture in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The programme is jointly funded by the European Union (€15 million from pre-accession funds) and the German government (€1.1 million). The project is implemented by GIZ (the German Corporation for International Cooperation), the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme and will end in March 2022.
A friend told her about the EU4Business programme that supports young companies and aspiring entrepreneurs in business management and growth. Azra applied and received much-needed business management training, which lasted for over two months. She also received a new industrial sewing machine, which enables her father to produce more in a shorter period of time, and financial support to buy raw material in bulk in advance.
“Before, I could not buy a serious amount of raw material as I depended on cash flow. With the support from the EU, I moved to the next level. Now I can respond to higher demand from clients and am ready to become a big company,” says Azra.
As the world finds new ways to travel in the COVID-19 reality, Azra is expecting further growth of her business. She plans to increase her range of products and, in the near future, to offer employment for other people in her company. She has certainly had challenges, but with her passion and hard work – and a little help from the EU – she has managed to overcome them all.
Thirty-two internally displaced and returnee families in Prijedor in Bosnia and Herzegovina were handed the keys to their new homes, offering them stability and security for the future, after years of living in temporary accommodation. The homes were built as part of the Regional Housing Programme, a joint initiative of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia supporting peace, stability and reconciliation in the region. The EU is the biggest donor to this programme, providing €234 million, which represents over 80% of the total budget.
Over 25 years after the war, around 8,500 persons still live in temporary accommodation across Bosnia and Herzegovina. As part of the Regional Housing Programme, around 1,800 houses and apartments have been delivered to date to offer them a permanent home. The number is expected to reach 3,000 by the end of 2023.
More than 40 media professionals from online, TV and radio institutions from North Macedonia are now more committed to impartial reporting on gender issues and violence against women. This is thanks to the “Different discourse, better reality: Media in combating gender-based violence” capacity building programme funded by the EU and implemented by UN Women.
The programme encouraged partnership between journalists and gender experts on covering women’s rights and ending violence against women. As part of the training, the journalists were familiarised with new guidelines for gender-sensitive reporting in the media. The programme also included mentoring sessions in which journalists were given support to craft gender-sensitive stories. As a result, 15 journalists created articles related to the topic and published them through digital, radio, and television media. The programme was part of an EU-funded project called Implementing Norms, Changing Minds on ending violence against women.
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism continues to channel support to help combat unprecedented forest fires in the Western Balkans and the rest of the Mediterranean. Following requests from Albania, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, and Turkey, the European Union has now helped mobilise 14 firefighting planes, three helicopters, some 1,300 rescuers and 250 vehicles. In Greece alone, nine planes, close to 1,000 fire fighters and 200 vehicles are currently being deployed. The latest offers over the weekend came from Austria, France, Germany, Poland, and Slovakia, who are sending ground firefighting units. This comes in addition to help already deployed last week to help fight forest fires in Albania, Italy,and North Macedonia.
Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, said “We are mobilising one of Europe’s biggest ever common firefighting operations as multiple fires affect several countries simultaneously. This shows the need to prioritise crisis response also at European level. The EU stands in full solidarity with Albania, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, and Turkey, at this difficult time.”
In addition, the EU’s emergency Copernicus satellite is helping to provide damage assessment maps of the affected areas in Greece and North Macedonia. The European Union’s 24/7 Emergency Response Coordination Centre is in regular contact with the relevant national authorities to closely monitor the situation and channel the EU’s assistance.
At the beginning of August, five containers for screening patients for COVID-19 were handed over to healthcare facilities in Bihać and Velika Kladuša, in the North-West of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Cantonal Hospital in Bihać received three containers, while the Primary Health Care Clinics of Bihać and Velika Kladuša received one container each.
This donation will help the healthcare system in Bihać and Velika Kladuša better screen and triage persons accessing these facilities, ultimately contributing to preventing the spread of COVID-19 among the citizens of Una Sana Canton. The containers were provided by the EU-funded project on “Addressing COVID-19 challenges within the migrant and refugee response in the Western Balkans”. The project aims to support Western Balkan partners to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on mobility as well as migration governance. The project recognises the impact of the pandemic not only on migrants and refugees, but also on the healthcare systems of the communities hosting reception centres.
The project has so far provided around 260,000 pieces of personal protective equipment and over 11,000 litres of disinfectant to border and migration management authorities across the region. It has helped over 12,000 workers in daily contact with travellers, migrants and asylum seekers, and contributed to containing COVID-19 infections among over 20,000 people on the move.
Ambassador Oana Cristina Popa, the Head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro, visited the municipality of Tivat, where she met with local government representatives and EU project beneficiaries. The visit focused on the environmental sustainability of Tivat and Montenegro and Ms Popa pointed out that further investment in green solutions, with the support of the EU and civil society, will help Tivat attract more tourists and become an example of a green and sustainable municipality, not only in Montenegro, but also in the region and beyond.
“The EU has donated more than €2 million for projects in Tivat, which are mainly aimed at environmental protection, sustainable development and tourism. I learned more from the local authorities about how these projects bring benefits to the local population,“ said Ms Popa.
Together with Željko Komnenović, the mayor of the municipality of Tivat, Ambassador Popa paid a visit to Tivat Salina, where a new visitor centre will be built with European funds. The EU’s investments in the Salina have already helped preserve this nature reserve and develop their tourist offer, as well as protect migratory birds. Ms Popa also visited Župa sports hall, where state-of-the-art solar collectors funded by the EU provide domestic hot water heating.
On 30 July, a Regional Housing Programme (RHP) event in Serbia marked the delivery of contracts for construction materials for 40 refugee and displaced families in the city of Sombor. In a subsequent event, a further 75 refugee and displaced families identified as being most vulnerable were handed the keys to new homes in Niš, courtesy of the RHP. The event was attended by Nikola Selaković, the Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs; Gerhard Salzer, Programme Manager at the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia, other officials and beneficiary families.
On behalf of the European Union, Mr Salzer observed that the EU had long been engaged in efforts in the region to provide housing for refugees following the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, and would continue to support the RHP until the close of the Programme. He paid tribute to the Commissariat for Refugees and the city of Niš for their exceptional efforts, and thanked the beneficiaries in particular for their patience over the years. “This is an emotional occasion for all of us, but especially for you, who have waited for this moment for so long,” he said. “You have invested a lot of effort in rebuilding your lives, and we are happy to be able to contribute a little bit to that.”
By sharing personal testimonies, expertise or simply own views on the benefits of vaccines, nine public figures called for mass immunisation as the only way out of the Covid-19 pandemic in North Macedonia as part of ‘Get vaccinated – it is safe, it is secure!’ campaign. The Head of the EU Delegation David Geer is part of the campaign, together with microbiologist Nikola Panovski, actresses Emra Kurtishova, Amernis Nokshiqi and Labina Mitevska, actor Goran Stojanovski, the coach of North Macedonia’s national football team Igor Angelovski, priest Dule Gruevski and imam Irsal Jakupi.
Videos with their messages are being broadcast all over the country – on the main TV (national/local) and radio stations, as well as on online media and social networks. In addition to the EU Delegation, the campaign is also supported by the Chamber of Commerce, Stopanska Banka – Skopje, Vitaminka food industry, numerous media outlets and other organisations.
An EU-funded project helps young people see beyond prejudices and express their eye-opening experience in short movies
Two cultural organisations – Dokufest in Prizren and Fond B92 in Belgrade – have teamed up to put together young people from Kosovo and Serbia and let them see if their beliefs about each other hold ground. So far, about 40 youngsters had a chance to challenge their prejudices in the “How do I see you?” project.
23-year-old from Prizren, Ismail Myrseli, explains his reason for signing up for the activity: “I wanted to know what a young Serb is interested in – and I found both similarities and opposing opinions about our societies.” During his field trip, Myrseli spent time with people from Kruševac in Serbia, which to his surprise looks a lot like his hometown. He spent only a fraction of the time on how life in Kosovo is and to respond to curious peers from Serbia. For the rest, he talked about what matters most to him: his interest in movies, theatre, and culture. “I believe if we fill the information gap with universal values, we leave no room for any kind of division.”
“I wanted to know what a young Serb is interested in, and I found both similarities and opposing opinions about our societies.”
And indeed, the organisers made sure that the project participants kept their focus on culture, both as a way to explore but also as a way to express their experience in a creative way. There were workshops, there were visits to cultural sites, and finally the creation of videos that answer the simple question of how meeting their peers face to face changed the way they see them. Due to coronavirus restrictions, the first group from 2020 had to limit themselves to online video calls but their film-making creativity still shines in the short videos they produced about one another.
The “How do I see you?” project manager, Zana Arapi Xheladini, says such projects are what young people need to really get to know one another, in both Kosovo and Serbia. The scarcity of information is what provoked the whole idea of the project, she explains. All started when members of the Dokufest team attended a festival in Serbia and people there were surprised to hear about things happening in Prizren – which until then they had known nothing about. Zana adds that an important part of the project is monitoring the media for conflicting narratives and sharing them with project participants to compare different points of view.
“We are just young people, having fun and enjoying these meetings and cinema.”
About the project
The project “How do I see you?” has been conceived and implemented by two civil society organisations from Kosovo and Serbia: Dokufest and Fond B92. They aim to create a window of opportunity for the youngsters from both countries thus engaging them in meaningful exchange that goes beyond the simple dialogue. This will be implemented by project partners through exchange camps attending workshops, discussions, meeting cultural practitioners, visiting cultural sites and producing 2-minute videos. The project has received funding from the pre-accession funds of the European Union, as part of the Civil Society and Media Programme for Kosovo 2018-2019.
One participant from Serbia says that this experience was one of the best of her life. Sara Ećimović, 20, instantly connected with someone her age from Kosovo. Before they actually met, they talked on the phone for days about shared interests, such as European films. “I learned about his family, the music he made, and his plans for the future,” says Ećimović, who was also among the first group to take part in the Dokufest short-film and documentary festival in Prizren. All the participants’ short videos have been exhibited for wider audiences at the festival. “At last, I get to visit Prizren and Kosovo,” she adds. Later in 2021 she and her fellow participants will show their videos at the Slobodna Zona festival in Belgrade. This is thanks to the same cultural exchange programme.
She sums it up, “We are just young people, having fun and enjoying these meetings and film”.
This report highlights successes of the Western Balkans Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility (WB EDIF) support to SMEs in the Western Balkans. WB EDIF is a joint initiative of the EU, representatives from the Western Balkans economies, and other partners.
