College education for 10 talented students in BiH

BOSANA FOUNDATION

Scholarship and Personal Development Program

Quarterly Report

April-June 2020

Executive Summary:

As we head into the second part of the year, we want to recognize all of our amazing supporters for the enormous contributions they have made over these last few months. We exceeded our COVID-19 fundraiser goals aimed to help our former students and, on top of that, we received a microgrant from GlobalGiving.

Bosana would like to express gratitude for your unrelenting dedication to ensuring our students receive support, especially during this unprecedented time. The majority of the world spent these months in their homes and yet, we have so many noteworthy updates for you.  I am incredibly proud to share the news about how our students have spent their spring quarter.

Students and Program Update:

These past three months have been unforeseen, presenting our students with countless personal and professional challenges that might have stopped many. However, Bosana students overcame them, continuing to adapt and carrying out their academic requirements. One silver lining over the spring quarter was seeing how our students came together to quickly move to remote teaching and learning and help each other succeed in this new environment. It has been a difficult semester and now we already have several students that are nearing graduation and some that have graduated.

We are steadfast in our dedication to our students. In response to the global pandemic, Bosana organized a fundraiser for our former students through the GlobalGiving platform.  Our goal was to help at least three former Bosana students who were most affected by COVID-19 by raising $3,000. In only a few days, we were able to raise a total of $15,834. This meant that we were now able to help many more students. We surveyed all of our former students in order to group them and divide the funds.  We are pleased to report that with your support, we were able to help all 14 students who needed additional support.

It was obvious to us that our current students and their families would be affected with the changes brought on by this pandemic. That is why we decided to raise the monthly scholarship from 150 BAM to 300 BAM during the months of April, May, and June. That way we would help our students and their parents who lost their jobs.

Additional funds were secured through GlobalGiving from both an anonymous corporate donor and an anonymous cohort of individuals to provide more hardship micro-grants to the community. Bosana was among the lucky organizations selected to receive an additional $1,000 micro-grant from GlobalGiving. This is an unrestricted donation to Bosana Foundation, which we will use to further help our current and former Bosana students who have been most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Kickstart your Career” workshop was tailored in 2019 specifically for BOSANA students with a focus on creating their professional biographies, resumes, cover letters, interview skills, time management, working in teams and other skills relevant in the today’s job market. Last year, eleven of Bosana students participated in the pilot program and this year we anticipated that sixteen of our graduating students would participate in the program. Due to COVID-19, we had to switch from in-person to online training. The students have reported remarkable results and satisfaction with the two-week online training.

Highlights of the quarter:

We are excited to report all these inspiring news about our students:

• Stipan is from Mostar and he studies medicine. He has received two Dean's Awards for Academic Excellence. Each year, we also recognize Bosana's Best Student with a monetary award according to his/her grades, involvement with the Foundation, and their volunteer hours. Stipan was selected four times for this Award. During COVID-19 lock down, Stipan volunteered at the 'Health Center' and 'Crisis Headquarters' in Mostar. His task was to inform citizens about the COVID-19 virus, explaining steps in preventing the virus and giving advice on how to say healthy.

• Suncica currently studies Political Science at the University of Sarajevo. The center for youth “Ivan Pavao II” with Suncica’s help has donated 6 computers to the daily center “Udruzenje Zemlja djece”, in which our student Pelka volunteers, and also to one pupil from Bosanska Otoka.

• Pelka is enrolled at the Educational-rehabilitation faculty at the University in Tuzla. She has been active in the non-governmental sector for many years making positive changes in her local community and beyond. During this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pelka was involved as a volunteer helping senior citizens by going to grocery stores and paying their bills since elderly over 65 years of age were not allowed to leave their homes.

• On behalf of the International Solidarity Forum, EMMAUS our student Nejra distributed preliminary packages of social vulnerability to elderly in the city of Zenica.

• Our student Emir studies medicine in Sarajevo, but has spent these past few months in his hometown. Aside from his academic engagement, he volunteers in the Red Cross in Kljuc where he is involved in a wide range of activities. In June, through this organization Emir collected food which was then distributed to those who needed it the most.

• Adi M. received recognition for being the best student of his generation with highest GPA at University of Mostar once again. Adi’s major is health studies and nursing.

• Benjamin past his final exam in June at the Educational-Rehabilitation University in Tuzla, which was the last milestone in completing all his requirements towards a bachelor degree. He is now preparing for the next phase of his academic life.

We are proud that our students are not only dedicated to their studies, but are also making a difference through their volunteer work.

“Students for Humanity” project is still thriving.  Bosana students are all setting aside a part of their monthly scholarship funds for their own humanitarian projects.  Bosana’s former students are also part of this project.

Students used their funds to support three projects during spring quarter. We are so proud of our students' continuous support to families and individuals in need.

• One of the former Bosana students suggested helping Almin, student from Zenica since  he found out that this student was not able to cover his dorm room expenses for March. Bosana students covered the cost of the dorm room as well as some additional living expenses.

• In April, students helped an unemployed elderly man who lives with his daughter and wife in Tuzla. He was never able to hold a stable job working only seasonal construction jobs. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic he was not able to go to work and lost all his potential earnings. Bosana students decided to donate through their project to help the family.

• Students have also helped one family from Zivinice with funds for food and other basic necessities.

BOSANA FOUNDATION

Scholarship and Personal Development Program

Quarterly Report

January – March 2020

Executive Summary:

We appreciate the continued generosity and commitment of our supporters and we would like to share with you just how much your support is impacting our programs.  We are off to a great start this year. Bosana’s 11th Annual Benefit held on March 7^th was a tremendous success. The goal for this event was $60,000 and we have surpassed it by raising $74,474. The event, organized during the weekend of International Women’s Day, focused on women, the importance of higher education, professional development and achievements, as well as philanthropic work.

We hosted a panel discussion with Sanja, Majla, Marsela, Mahira & Djenita - all very successful women who have made their careers in America in senior positions. The annual 'DoGooder Award' was presented to Djenita, for her many years of support and contributions to the Foundation.

Matea and Lejla, our former students, traveled from BiH to represent Bosana’s students at the event, and their heartfelt speeches were the absolute highlight of the night.  Last, but certainly not least, we were honored to welcome the United States Ambassador to B&H, Eric Nelson, to the event. In his remarks, the Ambassador recognized the importance of the Foundation’s work for the youth of BiH, as well as its programs of cooperation with the United States Embassy. We thank all of the participants, honored guests, volunteers, and supporters from afar, who helped make the 11^th Annual Benefit a success!

Students and Program Update:

This first quarter of the year marks the end of the fall semester and the exam season. We are proud to share with you that our students had a very successful exam season and that they will enter into the new semester ready to tackle new projects.

As we are all aware, the global changes in many countries have altered the way our students are attending their classes. Universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have switched to online learning in order to keep their student population safe from Covid-19 pandemic.  For the most schools in B&H this is a new process, and both the faculty and the students are adjusting to this new teaching approach. Some students do not have all the necessary equipment and some are lacking internet access, so this part is more challenging for them. Bosana is working on accommodating our students and havealready provided a few laptops for students who need them. We will continue to offer our support where it is needed.

Spring semester will be challenging for all. Strict movement rules are being implemented in B&H as we speak. Most of the population won’t be able to leave their house unless absolutely necessary. Positive news in all of this is that everyone is doing their best to find ways to adjust to the new normal and there are many free online academic resources now available to students across the globe.  This is very beneficial for students in B&H, where academic reasources are not always available and many students have to order books from different countries.

Highlights of the quarter:

We are excited to report all these exciting news about our students:

• Pink Shirt Day, or Anti-Bullying Day, was acknowledged on February 26. It is a day when people wear pink to school or work in solidarity against bullying. Suncica was hired at the Youth Center in East Sarajevo and Catholic School Center to lead workshops on this subject.

• Pelka, our student from Tuzla, attended several seminars and professional development classes, some which were “Peace with a Female Face” held in Sombor, Serbia; lectures titled “War with Photos” and “Living Monuments”.

• Three of our medical students, Milica, Saima and Selena, attended the international congress for medical students and young physicians in Sarajevo. The 5th SaMED congress was organized in February of this year.  Saima presented her work titled ‘Prevalence of Ophthalmic Disease Among Competitors of the Friendly Competition in Special Olympics “Parallel”.

• Saima was one of the organizers of the Biomedical congress organized in Tuzla at the beginning of March -Tuzla Brain Week.

• Nejra gave presentations during the pastquarter representing Center for student career development at the Economic Faculty in Sarajevo. These presentations are part of the CEO project, and they are done at various high schools in Sarajevo canton. In addition, Nejra is a part of the team working on organization of the Economic Forum of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2020.

• Matea and Lejla, former Bosana students, traveled to Los Angeles, California to attend this year’s Bosana Benefit. They spent a little over a week in Los Angeles, sightseeing and meeting our donors and volunteers. It is very important for our students to attend the event and share their stories with our donors. Bosana supporters can see firsthand how much their support means to our students and where they end up after graduation. Lejla is Bosana’s first employee and Matea is a young entrepreneur.

Last quarter we reported that our student Benjaminand his co writer and friend Lama have published a beautifully illustrated children's book called "Heroes without Capes". We are so proud to have had his book promoted at our annual event. We only had limited number of books and they were all sold at the beginning of the evening.

Josip is entering his last semester of graduate studies. There are various requirements for his major and one of them is an internship during the last semester. Josip is planning to work on his internship and has applied for the Work and Travel program which is part of the international cultural exchange program. He hopes to use this summer to work, travel, meet new friends, and improve his language skills.   

“Students for Humanity” project is still thriving.  Bosana students are all setting aside a part of their monthly scholarship funds for their own humanitarian projects.  Some of Bosana’s former students are also part of this project.

In October, our students donated to Stefan, a student from Tuzla, who needed financial assistance during 2019/2020 academic year.  Bosana students donated 500 BAM to Stefan for tuition and other accademic expenses so that he is able to finish the first year of his master’s program.