Social Rights for Vulnerable Groups in the Western Balkans.

This year’s first trip takes us to the Balkans.  For the next two weeks we will travel through Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia on a quest to find great stories to tell about the project “Social Rights for Vulnerable Groups in the Western Balkans” (SoRi)

The project is implemented by the GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); it is dedicated to a truly worthy cause: improving social rights for disadvantaged groups in the Western Balkans.   Especially Roma, internally displaces persons, people with disabilities, migrants, refugees, women and girls and LSBTIQ people are frequently discriminated against and sometimes live in horrendous conditions.

The project team works together with local administrations and NGOs towards better informing these people about their social rights and towards improving their access to education and counseling opportunities that will support them in improving their living situation.

We tell the projects’ stories.

FLMH has been assigned the beautiful task to document the project’s work and to tell the stories of people whom “Social Rights for Vulnerable Groups in the Western Balkans” helped to steer their live into a new direction.

Throughout the next days we will, among others, visit the Tuzla-based NGO “Zemlja djece u BiH” that takes care of homeless children, the youth center “Vermont” in Brčko which offers inclusive sport classes, and an agricultural project in Bijeljina that supports women’s way into economic independence through its approach of social entrepreneurship.

We get to meet the team behind the “Social Rights for Vulnerable Groups” project as well as staff from administrations and NGOs, social workers and lawyers. And, of course, those people who are targeted by the program.  We are looking forward to the encounters and are excited for the stories we will hear and that we will experiece.

Our itinerary

Photo: © Zorana Mušikić