INTRODUCTION

/SHORT DESCRIPTION/

Womens Association B&H Women was organized in December of 1992 in Zagreb (Croatia) by women refugees from Bosnia & Herzegovina. In October of 1996 the work of this association continues in Bosnia & Herzegovina in the temporary head-office in Sanski Most. The name of the association changes into Initiation of Women from B&H Through Heart to Peace. Weve changed the name because there was a political party in B&H named B&H Women.

                Since May of 2001 the association transfers their head-office into Kozarac (municipality Prijedor) and continues working in both towns Kozarac and Sanski Most. Now this association has a number of about 350 women from Bosnia & Herzegovina. Other women that come from countries like: England, France, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc. come for our traditional peace conference Through Heart to Peace that we have every year in late May.

                Our active workers come from different nationalities and professions. Some of them have survived concentration camps and different ways of torturing.

                Over a long period of time this association has helped organizing 8 new NGOs in Sarajevo, Mostar, Travnik, Bosanska Krupa, Sanski Most and Prijedor. Our hope is that women that did some specific work before the aggression onto B&H shall continue working actively helping themselves and other people through our association.

                We use the experience, that weve gained during many years of working on the NGO projects, to achieve better results for the users of our projects.

                Through our activities we support the process of return into Bosnia & Herzegovina. Most importantly we help building bridges of peace, friendship and trust between people.

                As women we understand that it is our most important duty to return the trust and dignity to Bosnian women. Through this we want to strengthen the position and the role of women in the community.

                Our goals are to bring back the lives of our women and children, to help building a democratic society so that Bosnia & Herzegovina can stand together with other advanced EUROPEAN countries.

                Through many years we have implemented a tens of different projects from which about 42.000 people had their use from.

The work of our projects was helped by many international organizations, like:

Austrian CARITAS-Vienna, United Nations Office-Vienna, Jugend and Family Minister Bure-Vienna, Evangelistic and Catholic Church Koln-Riehl, CDFChristlicher Friediest Bern, Womens Organization from Ereza, Travinjani and Roma-Italy, Islamic Relief-Zagreb, IGASA-Zagreb, Merann-Gmeiner Schule Koln, Muslim Womens League-Los Angeles, Help Age-London, High Norwegian Peoples Aid-Oslo, Mir Sada-Lyon, RCT IRCT, USAID, UMCOR, BWI, IBHI and Finish Government