BHCAC London
On Friday, 15 November 2019, at the premises of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Advisory Centre (BHCAC) in the borough of Brent in north-west London, BHCAC’s three-year work and an independent evaluation of the successfully completed Resilience project were presented. The event was attended by BHCAC partners, representatives of local civil society organisations and officials.
Mr. Zaim Pašić, founder and president of BHCAC, gave a warm welcome and briefly introduced everyone present to the Resilience project, funded by the National Lottery Fund, which was successfully implemented by BHCAC, providing “life-saving” support to vulnerable Londoners from the Western Balkans, many of whom survived the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995).
Mr Pašić said: “As an integrated organisation, BHCAC plays an active role in society and assists the wider local community in delivering advisory services and influencing its members and service users to play their civic duty through volunteer work and support for BHCAC and thus contribute to a society in crisis. This is an opportunity for each of us to give back to the British society that has given us our homes, opportunities and possibilities. We have gathered today to mark this special event which is the culmination of a huge collective effort and hard work by the BHCAC team over the last 3 years.”
He expressed special thanks to Sađida Trožić who managed multiple projects and led the team through a truly challenging time with limited resources, while supporting the Steering Committee and securing further funding. He also expressed his deep gratitude to the entire BHCAC team that delivered this project on the ground and to Lily Lawson, an independent consultant from Moyleen Associates (a social care consultancy), who carried out an independent evaluation of the Resilience project, and thanked the National Lottery Fund and the Municipality of Brent for their financial support, without which this project and its development would simply have been impossible.
The first of the honorary speakers of this event was H.E. Vanja Filipović, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UK, who at the very beginning of his speech emphasized that the Embassy of BiH in London greatly appreciates and supports the work of BHCAC, which cares not only for the well-being of British Bosnians, but also for other vulnerable and marginalized individuals in British society. H.E. emphasized that he is very proud of BHCAC and thanked all those who support the work of this Organization in any way.
“Cooperation with the diaspora and ensuring the protection of the interests and assistance of BiH citizens residing in the UK is an important part of the activities of the BiH Embassy in London. The Embassy will strive to maintain good communication with BHCAC regarding the recognition of the potential of the diaspora, which has so far proven to be the best promoter of BiH in the diaspora. Within its capabilities, the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in London will work on designing and organizing projects aimed at preserving the BiH identity and promoting the cultural and historical heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, we will strive to ensure more frequent visits and better cooperation with BiH institutions that are the main links with the homeland, in order to achieve bilateral
communication,” said Ambassador Filipović.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (former Minister for Religious Affairs at the UK Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government) as the second Honorary Speaker of the event said it was a great pleasure to be at the launch of a successfully completed project and to see such a magnificent achievement, that is all that the people of BHCAC have done. He expressed his special thanks to the municipality of Brent and the National Lottery Fund, which financially supported this project. The beautiful paintings of the famous BiH painter Ivan Mott hung on the walls of this Center, and by which BHCAC is recognizable, evoked that Lord Bourne feels as if he is in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his speech, Lord Bourne emphasized how important it is that the BHCAC exists, especially taking into account what the people of BiH lived through during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Finally, he thanked BHCAC for all that they do, emphasizing that the British Bosnian community is a very proud and hardworking community.
The Leader of Brent Municipality, Cllr. Muhammed Butt, also addressed the attendees, emphasizing that it was a great honor and privilege for him to have H.E. Vanja Filipović, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UK, Biljana Lučić, First Secretary of the Embassy of BiH, Military Attaché of the Embassy of BiH, Colonel of the Armed Forces of BiH, Nedžad Sadiković and Lord Bourne present at this ceremonial event in Brent Municipality. He expressed a special honor and gratitude to Mr. Pašić for hosting these distinguished guests in Brent Municipality. In his address, Cllr. Butt said that the BHCAC project is exactly what contributes to the priorities of Brent Municipality; to build a future for all, an economy that suits everyone, a cleaner, more considerate Brent, a place where everyone can feel safe, happy, healthy and on solid foundations. The latter, as Cllr. Butt said, is closely linked to this successfully implemented BHCAC project because Brent Municipality’s priorities dictate that their citizens have adequate help to control the services they need.
The closing speech went to Miss Amra Mujkanović, who informed the audience about the work of Remembering Srebrenica, a project of the humanitarian organization Ummah Help based in Birmingham (UK). The Remebering Srebrenica project promotes Srebrenica Remembrance Day on July 11, runs a program of educational visits “Lessons from Srebrenica” and runs year-round public awareness campaigns on activities to teach about the consequences of hatred and the importance of building stronger cohesive communities.
After the ceremonial speeches, a power point presentation of the Resilience project was given by Sađida Trožić, Project Manager. An excellent 15-minute presentation, eloquently and truly movingly delivered, were the comments of those present. What was presented in a very short time connected the history of the Organization, the service users, many of whom are survivors of concentration camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995). The presentation introduced the Resilience project, highlighted the main achievements, challenges and lessons learned. The main message of this presentation is that all people want to make their lives better, but they need an opportunity and adequate and comprehensive assistance.
It was interesting to see the composition of the BHCAC team, the Steering Committee, professional staff and volunteers who made this project happen, who are actually from three generations of British Bosnians (concentration camp survivors, medical evacuees, children of concentration camp survivors who also survived horrific war experiences, children of those killed in concentration camps, grandchildren of the first two groups or first generation British Bosnians born in the UK) and individuals from the wider local community. What surprised us all was that this project
realized with only 1.8 equivalent full-time random paid staff, that is, not even two full-time paid professional workers.
We asked Manager Sađida Trožić if it is possible? Yes, it is possible, an independent evaluation of the Resilience project conducted by Moylen Associates, independent consultants, confirms this. The essence of success in our case is three things, but very important; the first thing is recruiting adequate staff (professional and volunteer) who can demonstrate the values of BHCAC, the second thing is mobilizing the community to contribute through volunteering and the third is leveraging existing resources, i.e. partnerships with state sector institutions and civil society organizations. The most important thing is that everyone in the team understands their role in the project, sees the bigger picture and helps each other. When everyone acts as one, works hard and goes towards one goal, success comes by itself. This is a large project that has made a great impact in the lives of our service users. Over the past three years, we have managed to develop it and expand the delivery of our advisory services to the wider local community. And in the last two years we have worked on 5 projects at once, of course, with additional funding that we have secured in the meantime, which has allowed us to increase the capacity of professional staff. The figures, facts and achievements in the final independent evaluation of the project relate exclusively to the originally conceived Resilience project, which was funded by the National Lottery Fund in the amount of £272,286 and £10,000 from Brent Borough. The additional funding of £213,985 is financial support for projects that we have developed from the Resilience project that are still ongoing and capital projects that we have completed.
“The most important thing is that everyone in the team understands their role in the project, sees the bigger picture and helps each other. When everyone acts as one, works hard and works towards one goal, success comes by itself. This is a great project that has made a big impact in the lives of our service users. I must emphasize that the successful implementation of the Resilience project is the hard, dedicated and valuable work of the BHCAC team; the volunteers who led the activities or contributed to the work (Zaim Pašić, Fejzi Jahaj, Anela Majdanac, Hasnija Majdanac, Safeta Karabašić, Ismeta Velić, Evera Rušidović, Mina Miftari, Mesud Kahrimanović, Dušan Bilbija, Mirsada Kulašić, Sunita Čolak Hatić, Senad Jakupović, Vansuthra Sundrum) and the professional staff who successfully brought this project to a close (Emine Trožić – Master of Laws, Selma Salkičević – Master of European Studies and Jasmine Bilajac – Bachelor of Laws). I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them once again from the bottom of my heart and congratulate them on a job well done,” said Miss Sađida Trožić.
It is important to emphasize that the successful implementation of the Resilience project is the result of the hard, dedicated and valuable work of the BHCAC team; volunteers who led the activities or contributed to the work (Zaim Pašić, Anela Majdanac, Hasnija Majdanac, Fejzi Jahaj, Safeta Karabašić, Ismeta Velić, Envera Rušidović, Mina Miftari, Mesud Kahrimanović, Dušan Bilbija, Mirsada Kulašić, Sunita Čolak Hatić, Senad Jakupović, Vansuthra Sundrum) and professional staff who successfully brought this project to a close (Emine Trožić – Master of Laws, Selma Salkičević – Master of European Studies and Jasmine Bilajac – Graduate in Law)
At this ceremony, BHCAC awarded very attractive awards, can you explain to us who? Yes of course, the first award was given to Brent as recognition for being the only London borough that has given us financial support in the past three years. The Resilience Project provided assistance to vulnerable and marginalized Londoners from the Western Balkans who live in more than 6 London boroughs and all of these boroughs benefited from this project because we provided assistance to their citizens, however, the only financial support we received was from Brent borough and this recognition is well deserved.
The second award went to Brent Hubs for their trusted and collaborative partnership with the public sector. I must stress that this is the second partnership award to be given to an organisation in the history of BHCAC. Brent Hubs is an initiative of Brent Borough Council that brings together all local organisations in one place (local libraries), including council officers. We all work closely together, act as one team and respond to the needs of the wider local community through the delivery of a range of services and activities. This is truly something new and special. Our experience over the past two years working in local libraries, namely Brent Hubs (Harlesden and Willesden), has shown that working closely with council officers and other organisations delivers better results for the end user. So our award to Brent Hubs truly reflects how we feel about this partnership. Therefore this award is well deserved.
The third award was given to a professional member of your team, Emina Trožić, for excellence in providing customer service, along with a special award. We heard from Mr. Zaim Pašić that everyone present knew that Emina had provided excellent services to the wider local community, however, as he said, they did not know that Emina had also provided the same level of service to Londoners from the Western Balkans, and most notably British Bosnians, over the past 8 years, and that she had truly made a great impact on their lives.
Would you please tell us a little bit about this recognition and award?
Yes, the Emina Trožić award was given for excellence in providing services to clients and the award was given for the great impact in the lives of BHCAC service users. BHCAC’s mission is to improve the quality of life and Emina is one of the professional team members who has made a significant impact in the lives of the people we serve. We said goodbye to Emina after the end of the Resilience project because she went to work for a law firm and we really needed something to recognize her contribution. That is why she was awarded an award, namely a painting by the famous Bosnian and Herzegovinan painter Ivan Mott who painted her in oil on canvas – Emina’s hometown – Sanski Most. This award is actually a donation from our Ivan Mott who, back in 2003, after the Organization helped him when he needed it most, declared that he would provide BHCAC with lifelong support. All the paintings in BHCAC are the humane work of this noble painter. This is another valuable gift that BHCAC could not afford to give Emina but received in return from someone he helped. Even though she left, Emina still supports the work of BHCAC in her domain. It is impressive when people value the importance of our work and give continuous support to BHCAC, Our Ivan Mott in this case does it in his own way. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ivan Mott for this precious gift to our professional team member.
So a well-deserved recognition and award? Absolutely.
You awarded the fourth award for the Srebrenica Genocide Campaign to Dr. Waqar Azmi, OBE, Founder and President of Remebering Srebrenica for clear reasons? Yes, I really don’t have enough words for this award, Dr. Azmi does it best of its kind, you noticed the emotions when I announced the awarding of the award. I take the opportunity to once again thank Dr. Azmi in front of BHCAC for raising awareness of what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995).
Fifth award? Yes, the fifth award was given to our umbrella organization, the Bosnia and Herzegovina UK Network, which is a network of Bosnian and Herzegovina organizations in the UK that has provided continuous support to BHCAC for the last 22 years. They donated the first £200 to us and that’s where all this started today.
What will happen next with the Resilience project?
“At the moment we are in uncertainty because we are still waiting for some important decisions to continue financing the continuous work of this project, we have done our part, now it is up to others to do the same. If we receive positive decisions, our services will spread even more to the wider local community that really needs our help. The BHCAC professional team now includes the first generation of Bosnians born here or those who came as babies, an ambitious and very skilled young generation. You saw Selma Salkičević tonight running the program and also doing the rest She has been with us for only 8 months and she is already my right hand, who has exceeded all expectations for a new employee. After 5 months of work at BHCAC, everyone is very proud of the fact that Jasmina Bilajac was able to provide services to the wider local community in just a few days. It is exciting to work with this young team high achievers. They are ours the future,” added Miss Trožić.
During your presentation, the questions regarding the pictures of your service users were interesting. Why did you select beautiful images and present that your users still need help?
You heard Lord Bourne, British Bosnians are a proud community, BHCAC service users are proud people and we represent them as such.
Sađida, we congratulate you on a successfully realized project and wish you all at BHCAC the best of luck in your future work. Thank you for the conversation.
Thank you.
Bosnia UK Network
