Poverty is a Rather Widespread Phenomenon in B&H
Poverty is a very widespread phenomenon in whole Bosnia and Herzegovina, therefore also in Prijedor. Numerous international and domestic organizations were, and still are, involved in assistance efforts to help the vulnerable population, thus contributing to the fight against poverty.
What methods does your organization use in dealing with poverty issues? We are currently involved in several projects. Over the past two years, our intention was to concentrate on self-sustainability and development projects, so that we were forced to greatly reduce our humanitarian projects. The sustainability projects were mostly directed at the agricultural sector. In essence, we try to secure some founding capital to the interested people, so that could start independent production which would provide for their existence. What kind of assistance the citizens ask you for? What is their most common need? In a huge majority of cases, they seek material help, food or clothing. We still get some donations in food and clothing, but that has been reduced greatly. We also used to receive a lot of help from foreign NGOs. I couldn’t tell you whether it was directed and used in the best possible way, but I do know that there were organizations that contributed much to the reduction of poverty. Sometimes, humanitarian organizations are criticized for the fact that they distributed assistance, or that they gave assistance over a prolonged period of time, so that the recipients lost some working habits. For that reason, we wish to direct our attention to another approach, but I still think that the period of providing classic humanitarian assistance was necessary. Having in mind that people know about our sustainability projects, they come to get informed on possibilities to join such projects. In your opinion, to what extent is the poverty spread in Prijedor Municipality? Due to the fact that there is no serious, good social program on state or municipal level, there are people who live in very difficult situation and there is no one to help them. In the past, we tried to supplement the insufficient engagement of the social institutions, to help the needy population, to ameliorate the social problems as much as possible. However, the problem is that we have to try to help the people in a way that will assist them in finding work that will earn them a decent living, not, as before, just give out humanitarian assistance. We understand that problem and our wish is to move in that direction, with the hope that social welfare institutions will be capable to help the people that have real social problems and can’t live off their work. Over the coming period, we would like to help those families that are currently in a difficult material situation, but could exist better, after they received that help, of their own work. Are the local authorities in Prijedor engaged to do some concrete work on the issue of poverty? We cooperate with the local authorities and, to be honest, I don’t have a clear idea of their real capacity regarding this issue. It is certain, however, that more could be done to help the people in need, especially those that are prepared to provide themselves with better life with their own work. Greater engagement, in my mind, is needed in terms of that starting initiative and stimulation. Naturally, more should be done on state level. The citizens should be stimulated to start with their own business and ventures which could provide for a better life. |
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