A 17 year old boy is found living by himself in a house in Banja Luka, capital of Republika Srpska in Bosnia. The conditions in which he is living are beyond belief. The yard is piled with junk and garbage. Inside the house, there is very little furniture. The floors are covered with trash. The smell of human and animal feces and rotting garbage is unbearable. There is no electricity. When the boy is asked why he is living like this, he says he is scared somebody will try to take the house away. He has let the house deteriorate, so no one will take it from him.
While the squalor in this boy's particular situation is uncommon, the issue of "keeping" a house or "getting" one is not unique in Bosnia. As more and more refugees want to return to Drvar, Sanski Most, Prijedor and Banja Luka, housing questions become increasingly important. Until now, most of the people had to face housing conflicts on their own, mainly because the local authorities and international organizations are overwhelmed with housing, unemployment and other problems, as well as many legal and political issues. But since March, returnees and refugees from Banja Luka and its surroundings are not alone anymore: the Neighborhood Facilitators Center opened its doors in downtown Banja Luka to give them real support.
Neighborhood Facilitators deal directly with critical issues of inter-ethnic reconciliation and community-building by empowering local people to resolve practical problems of daily co-existence, teaching conflict resolution, and organizing vulnerable populations into action groups. Vera Kelava, one of the local Facilitators, said, "our center is more than necessary within our community. It supports minority return through micro-economic help and building civil society."
There are five international and ten local neighborhood facilitators, organized into three-person mixed teams (with a majority of locals on each one.) The internationals come from the US, Canada and Russia. The locals are Bosnians from all ethnic groups (Croats, Muslims, Serbs). Some of them work at the center, while others work as mobile teams in Drvar, Sanski Most and Prijedor, dealing with displaced people returning to and from these towns. According to Dubravka Drobac, one of the local Facilitators, "Most of our clients come to the center for information about returning to Drvar or Sanski Most or the process of giving back or getting back their property. Some of them ask for legal help. I support them, for example, by setting up meetings with the president of the Union of Refugees from Sanski Most, in order to get some more information about documentation for people wanting to return there."
The mobile teams collect valuable information about returnees from Drvar, Sanski Most and Prijedor. They find out about the problems returnees are facing and about the local and international organizations working on these areas, in order to initiate cooperation programmes that will benefit returnees. But the job of the mobile teams is not an easy one. As one of the local Facilitators expressed, "the situation in Drvar is very complicated. There are problems between returnees and local authorities, especially in terms of food delivery. Returnees are also being harassed by Croat extremists. The returnees that are living in flats in Drvar are basically in a ghetto protected by SFOR (the NATO forces). The reintegration process is very slow and hard to achieve." Boban Mijatovic, another local Facilitator, adds, "returning of refugees to Drvar is a very complicated process but I think that we have to persist with it. Returning to Banja Luka is easier to accomplish than returning to Drvar."
Sarah Parker, a Canadian, is part of the team of international facilitators. She argues that in spite of the difficulties in Drvar, Neighborhood Facilitators have achieved something valuable: the positive response of the returnees. "Our meetings with both the Association for Refugees from Drvar and with individual returnees themselves have been very successful. The response from all of them to our ideas has been very positive. We are the only organization to have approached these people to talk to them about the needs of the returnees in the Drvar municipality. Other organizations we have approached or which have approached us regarding partnering with them in Drvar have also been very supportive and encouraging about our project."
The return of displaced people is connected with economic issues, so the Neighborhood Facilitators are also facilitating the job hunting process, not only for the returnees but for any persons who drop in the center. Facilitators also assist on issues of job rights. Local Facilitator Vladimir Milinovic referred to one of the cases he dealt with: "A lady came to the center because she needed legal help, but she didn't know who could assist her. She was fired after working for 25 years in a company in Banja Luka. The reason was that some of the members of her family didn't serve in the Serb army during the war. She is not Serb but her husband is. She made a complaint, but the court refused her request. Before coming to the NF center, she had asked for advice from several organizations, including IPTF (International Police Task Force), but was not successful. I helped the lady first and most importantly by listening to her story. Second I addressed this case to the NGO Movimiento por la Paz el Desarme y la Libertad (MPDL). I knew they offered legal help for free. The response that I received from them was the same one the lady heard from the organization she had visited in the past: "there is no legal solution for her problem now." However, I kept trying. With the assistance of Justicia (a local NGO), we were able to get a new hearing for my client and thus restart the process after six years."
In another case, a woman and her family (an invalid husband and a child) were in a very bad financial situation. Vladimir helped her by providing job information. He sent the woman to a private business in Banja Luka, which was looking for employees. The facilitators also provided information about organizations giving free English and computer lessons, so that she can be better prepared to find employment.
The Neighborhood Facilitators collect information about the key services provided by international and local NGOs, and maintains close contact with those organizations. Such contacts and information are essential when it comes to helping Bosnians come up with solutions to their problems. Bridging between Neighbourhood Facilitators and other organizations working in similar areas, brings an enormous benefit for the people that need their help, not only because the facilitators can guide them to where their case can be resolved, but because the people can feel they have an "expert" and real "support" for their particular problems.
The aim of the NF project is not to give people solutions, but rather to allow them to search for solutions themselves. "We are trying to empower the community to organize themselves better, so they will be able to represent their own interests and to help themselves in the future." The Neighborhood Facilitators organize discussion group meetings on different issues that concern the community (micro-credits, employment, etc). "I think it is good that we are giving those people some kind of support in their will to fight for their rights, and to get a feeling that they are not alone, and that there is someone who wants to help them", said Snezana Borovnica, a local Facilitator.
Although the NF project was conceived by an international organization and currently has five international staff members, the concept is that the "wisdom is in the local facilitators." The achievements of the NF project are on a small scale, but still significant. People who have visited the Center or talked to the Neighborhood Facilitators felt that someone listened to their personal stories. They trust the facilitators.
Lina Maria Holguin, a journalist from Columbia, wrote this article while based at Canada's Pearson Peacekeeping Centre where she worked as the Neighborhood Facilitators Program Assistant.