Volunteer-Finance 2008 / Volontiraj-Kreditiraj 2008
Organisation: Infohouse
Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended fourteen years ago. Those who were children then are now at the end of their secondary education, facing high unemployment rate. The apathy is widespread. The system of values incoherent. And yet, the young people are lacking motivation for any socially useful work. In order to foster volunteering, as well as to boost the self-confidence and the prospects of the country’s youth, NGO Infohouse started the Volunteer-Finance initiative. In 2007, they won the first prize of the ERSTE Foundation Award for Social Integration.
On a “Social Day”, there is no school for the participants of the Volunteer-Finance project. Instead, they work in a company or in a civil society organisation. What they earn goes into the “Social Day Account”. At the same time, the participating schools develop concepts for social projects which are presented at the “Idea Fair”. The best five projects are implemented, with the funds collected during the “Social Day”.
Almost 80% of the Bosnian youth have never done any volunteer work. Their secondary education did not equip them with the skills necessary for competing on the labour market. Most of them do not know how to follow the development of a project from idea to implementation. For that reason, the importance of the Volunteer-Finance project is even higher.
The Volunteer-Finance initiative started in 2007. It is designed to foster social volunteering and integration among Bosnia and Herzegovina’s youth and business, as well as to boost the self-confidence and the prospects of the young. In the first year, 380 students from 17 high schools in Sarajevo participated in the project, raising a total of 6,396 Bosnia and Herzegovina Marks, or 3,240 EUR. For their efforts, they won the first prize at the ERSTE Foundation Awards for Social Integration. The competition was tough – they were competing with 402 projects from the region.
Following the excellent results and the great motivation of the high school students from other cities the project Volunteer-Finance 2008 was implemented in six cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 56 high schools, in both entities.
The support of this and many similar innovative and meaningful projects is the main reason why the ERSTE Foundation Award for Social Integration was established in 2007. Award is designed to recognise and promote outstanding organisations in the public and non-profit sectors whose work is oriented towards social change and creating a society with equal chances and opportunities for everyone.
