People in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) today turn to addictions for many reasons, including the pandemic, poverty, social difficulties, limited perspective, post-war life, boredom, and apathy. Additions likewise take many forms, such as gambling, nicotine, drugs, alcohol, and increasingly, the Internet.
Once they reach 18 and leave the orphanages in which they grew up, children without parental care as well as those with developmental difficulties are left on their own and, in the process, they face rejection by their communities.
This July, as part of the program marking the 27th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, in cooperation with the Srebrenica Memorial Center, the Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) is organizing the third edition of the Srebrenica Youth School in Srebrenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
During the three-day Peace Festival ‘22 in Vitez in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, young people, activists, and journalists sent a unique message about their desire for life without division and discrimination. As their peers in Ukraine face the horrors of violent aggression, their affirmation of the need to maintain the peace was especially powerful.
A mixed media artist with a special talent for illustration and digital art, his works are exhibited in art galleries, institutions and public spaces around the world, from Sarajevo and Mostar, to Berlin, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Taiwan. His works Madness Continuous and Depth were selected by the Platform for Contemporary Art and presented in New York’s famous Times Square.
During the past decade, unemployment among youth in the Western Balkans has been a persistent issue. Young people from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo are leaving the Balkans massively in search of better job opportunities and a chance for a higher quality of life.