Loans for Bosnian women

Introduction
The strategy of Women for Women International
(WfWI), which is headquartered in the United States and offers programs in eight countries, is to promote rights-based development by supporting women survivors of war as they take control in rebuilding their lives and communities. This approach stems from the belief that with adequate access to information, resources and opportunities, women can move from crisis and poverty to stability, self-reliance and active citizenship. Although WfWI works in widely varied regions and cultures and serves women of many different ethnicities and religions, WfWI’s approach has always been simple: Extend a hand of financial and emotional support to one woman at a time while training her to help herself and fostering her awareness of women’s rights. By addressing the realities of women’s lives in this way, a women’s movement can take root and grow in even in the most challenging circumstances. WfWI believes that, given the opportunity, one woman can accomplish anything, but bring women together, and they can accomplish everything.
WfWI’s first program was established in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in 1993 in the midst of war. Since that time, the thousands of women WfWI has served in Bosnia and Herzegovina have formed businesses, developed vocational skills, learned about their rights, and taken leadership roles in their communities.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of six republics of the former Yugoslavia. The population belonged to three major ethnic groups: Bosnian Muslims (also referred to as Bosniaks), Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs. The country is mostly landlocked between Croatia and Serbia, and it is named “Bosnia and Herzegovina” because it is comprised of two regions, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia, in the north, occupies approximately 80 percent of the country; Herzegovina, in the south, occupies approximately 20 percent.
When the fighting started in 1992, I worked providing humanitarian relief services to the elderly. For nearly four years, Serbia’s president, Slobodan Milosevic, and the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, launched a hate-filled propaganda
campaign to revitalize Serb nationalism. Bosniaks were portrayed as dangerous fundamentalists
that needed to be removed. Over 100,000 people were killed; millions were terrorized and displaced. Systematic rape was used as a weapon of war and women and girls were forced into rape camps while their husbands and sons were murdered. It is estimated that 20,000–50,000 Bosnian Muslim women were raped. Genocide and forced impregnation
were used as tools of ethnic cleansing. Sixty percent of all homes in Bosnia, half of the schools, and one-third of the hospitals were damaged or destroyed. Such a horrific conflict created deep rifts in Bosnian society.
After almost four years of this hell, much of BiH was destroyed, and the population was deeply divided. During the war, I saw things that made me question how I, my family, and my country would ever recover. As Safeta Kulic, a 36-year-old mother of two who has since graduated from Women for Women International in Bosnia and Herzegovina, explained: “They brought me to an abandoned house and tore my clothes off. One soldier held a gun in my mouth while the other raped me, and then the other did the same. Then one soldier told the other to kill me. His response was: ‘I don’t need to. She’ll soon kill herself.’”
When the Bosnian war ended in 1995, the country needed to be rebuilt. In a country where women had traditionally been excluded from public life, the notion that this burden would fall to the women — because so many of the men had been killed or injured in the war — was overwhelming. But there was no other choice. This was a turning point borne of necessity, but I now know that it was also an opportunity.
Our Programs
Traditionally in Bosnia and Herzegovina, women — especially those in rural and suburban communities — were excluded from public life; their only roles were in the home. Women were often closed off from society, rarely leaving their homes and having no connections to other women. WfWI started working in Bosnia in 1993 during the war in Sarajevo. In the first year, 14 women — displaced from their homes and with missing husbands — were matched with sponsors in America who sent money each month and exchanged letters with their new Bosnian sisters. These early WfWI participants were most concerned with immediate survival: finding food, shelter, clothing and information
about missing relatives, and dealing with the trauma of rape and other horrors. The letters they exchanged with their sponsors became a global lifeline of humanity and hope that bridged their isolation and helped to alleviate their suffering.
In 1997, the organization began offering microcredit
loans to help women access capital to start businesses. As WfWI gained experience in Sarajevo, the staff came to understand that financial assistance
alone was not enough to create deeper change in the lives of women who had suffered the effects of war. In 1998, WfWI created a one-year program in addition to sponsorship, enrolling 400 women in rights awareness, life skills and vocational training. WfWI hoped to help women gradually build the strength and stature they needed to become active members of their communities. The program was officially registered as a local NGO in 1998, and I was hired as the Director.
In 2000, the program expanded beyond Sarajevo to more rural and isolated areas in the central and eastern regions of the country where the needs were great and transportation was scarce. The programs in BiH include Sponsorship, Rights Awareness and Life Skills Curriculum, Vocational and Technical Skills Development, and Income Generation Assistance. Participants in the Rights Awareness and Life Skills Curriculum meet regularly with their Women’s Group, a group of approximately 20 women, for the training sessions. Another component of the program, vocational skills development, builds on and strengthens women’s existing skills and introduces new skills in traditional and non-traditional fields so that women can access future employment opportunities.
Although the war officially ended in 1995, the socially excluded women we serve continue to face challenges to improving their lives and becoming active citizens in their communities. Additionally, there is much variation between different regions in terms of the long-term effects of the war. In Srebrenica, for example, where an estimated 8,000 men and boys were massacred within a few days, women still experience intense trauma years later. Much of the country remains divided along ethnic lines.
Microcredit Program
After the war, the Bosnian economy changed from being state-run to one that is open to private investment and enterprise. The transition to a market economy made reconstruction even more complicated
because there was no state-provided security to fall back on. The state plays a much smaller role in providing jobs and a social safety net—a difficult adjustment for many women. To provide women with new alternatives to earn an income and support their families — both immediately and for the long term —WfWI–BiH began a microlending program in 1997. Starting a business is something new and perhaps non-traditional for most Bosnian women, yet for many of the women WfWI–BiH serves, it is an important route to financial sustainability.
To facilitate the creation of women-run businesses, WfWI – BIH provides not only microfinance
capital but business start-up advisory services and, perhaps most importantly, identification and development of larger and international markets to help women sell their products.
In a place like BiH where most of the country is rural and there are few or no large employers as a result of widespread destruction during the war, starting or working for a small business is often the only way that women can earn an income. By helping Bosnian women access the opportunities, knowledge and resources to start or grow small businesses that thrive, women can then provide employment to others in the community. For example, Lucia, who has been a WfWI microcredit client for 10 years, was able to start a business making and canning red pepper puree. Now her business is so successful that she employs the whole village. All women need is one chance and they will show everybody in their community what is possible and they will become a vital resource for their communities.
Today, WfWI–BiH works with more than 3,000 women, and over 17,000 women have graduated from its program since 1998. The microcredit program, which became a separate legal entity in 2001, has provided loans to nearly 20,000 women since 1997.
Bringing Women Together
In the last 11 years, I have seen many positive changes not just in women’s lives but in their families and communities as well. I have seen how women who come to the program feeling helpless, alone and uncertain about their future join a group of other women, begin to learn about their rights and develop vocational skills to generate an income. These women are literally transformed. They become each other’s support system, they talk about their rights together and what “rights” truly means in their lives. They practice speaking up for themselves and each other, in a safe space. They form businesses together that employ others in the community and help to jumpstart the local economy. The women begin to ask questions about how to improve their communities and bring services to their neighbors. As women begin to see themselves differently, it changes the way they are regarded by others. Anka Blazevic, a 48-year-old mother of three and WfWI–BiH program participant talked about this: “When I heard about Women for Women International, I was so happy because women are able to help each other, and there is someone all over the world, far, away, thinking about you and taking care of you.