A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

History of BOSFAM

The Early Years

BOSFAM was founded in 1994 by Munira Beba Hadzic, a former primary schoolteacher in Srebrenica. Prior to this, Beba had started a knitting project in 1993 with Oxfam for women displaced during the war. The Oxfam project was in three schools that had been turned into collective centers [shelters for IDPs] in Tuzla. “We wanted to do something for the displaced women, who were just sitting around," she recalls. "When you sit, you can knit." Oxfam supplied the wool and the women knitted sweaters and hats. The knitted products were then donated to needy families. It was so cathartic that Oxfam opened a center near the refugee camps.

But in 1994, Oxfam left Bosnia due to difficult war conditions. Oxfam invited Beba to relocate with them, but she declined, saying she wished to stay in Tuzla and help her people. The director of Oxfam told her that there was no other organization in Tuzla to carry on the work that Oxfam had started. Beba's reply was quick and unequivocal: "O.K. I will make an NGO -- just tell me what an NGO is."

Beba’s motto: “When you sit, you can knit.”

Beba wanted to continue the work she had started a year ago and assist displaced women traumatized by the war. Beba recalls: "Many of us were lost, and had nothing. So some of us got together and asked what we could do by ourselves. We began to go around to the collective centers .If nothing else, we could at least talk to people. As it turned out, we could do much more."

Beba learned quickly, and in 1994 BOSFAM was founded and registered.


BOSFAM's Role

Once BOSFAM became a registered NGO, a center was set-up in Tuzla where displaced women could keep each other company, continue with their knitting, and earn a small income by making handicraft products, specifically sweaters and flat-weave carpets (kilims). A BOSFAM motto on the wall admonishes not to make promises, but to "do something." Beba Hadzic says: "The goal of our work is to fix Srebrenica, not just talk too much." Computer and English classes were added later.

The name "BOSFAM" combines the words "Bosnia" and "family," underlining the fact that the organization is Bosnian and represents not just Serbs, Muslims, or Croats, but women from all Bosnia’s ethnicities. BOSFAM's members are proud of their organization’s multi-ethnic character, which they have been able to maintain throughout the difficulties. Beba says: "When we started working in Srebrenica, I would always ask displaced women who came to work with us: ‘Can you work in the same room with Serbs? The majority says yes.’”

In 2000 BOSFAM began laying the groundwork for the return of its members to Srebrenica. It was still too dangerous to visit in person, so members of BOSFAM began to make contact with former Serb neighbors and colleagues who had returned to Srebrenica after the war. 

BOSFAM also began to identify Serbs in Srebrenica who were willing to risk talking to them. This was a risk, because Serbs often faced intimidation from the local authorities if they were seen talking to their former Muslim neighbors. Muslims also faced harassment from their own government for initiating such contacts.  

BOSFAM was able to help displaced women from Serb-controlled areas to acquire documents, and gradually visits became easier. The office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) established bus routes that enabled the women to make short visits to their former homes. However, even as late as December 1999, it was still dangerous to stay too long in Srebrenica. Ibrahim Hadzic (Beba's husband and an employee of the Srebrenica municipal government) put it this way: "We go to Srebrenica, park our car, go into the hotel to meet, and then we leave. We are the government, but it is as if we are in a jail."

With BOSFAM's help, women started going to Srebrenica to collect their own property and identification documents. BOSFAM's staff also began to visit women who had returned. They helped the women visit a doctor, register children for school or to find tutors. If a woman faced difficulties, BOSFAM was there to help. BOSFAM also gave advice about the repair of homes. Many returnees came back to find their homes completely wrecked. By spring of 2002, BOSFAM had approximately 300 members, including around 50 women in Srebrenica. 

BOSFAM weavers Esma Divovic (left) and Kadira Smajic (right) draw strength and support from BOSFAM.

BOSFAM’s large network means that its weavers can have a significant impact on reconstruction, and in late 2004 The Advocacy Project sought and secured funding from the Dutch Refugee Foundation (Stichting Vluchteling) for a BOSFAM weaving center in Srebrenica. The Foundation has also funded an earlier AP project to help BOSFAM design a website.

This grant allowed BOSFAM to purchase nine new looms and set up a makeshift center in a private house. About five women have come regularly to the center, where they receive training and companionship from Magbula Divovic and two other skilled weavers, while another five weave from home. Encouragingly, they include two young women. Together, the weavers have produced about 30 medium-sized carpets in BOSFAM’s trademark designs. The project is overseen by Milica Janic, a former Serb refugee, underscoring BOSFAM’s commitment to inter-ethnic reconciliation. 

Pia Schneider, a 2004 BOSFAM intern (left), returned to Srebrenica to visit her colleagues in April 2005.

In spite of this promising start, BOSFAM’s ability to attract others back to Srebrenica depends on selling carpets. With this in mind, AP and BOSFAM are planning to send a delegation of weavers to Europe and the United States before the July 11th anniversary, to attend commemoration events and promote BOSFAM’s online market place.

The main obstacle to BOSFAM’s long-term sustainability is competition from cheaper carpets on the world market. Faced by this, AP and BOSFAM are also hoping to develop a marketing strategy that will exploit the special needs of the Srebrenica weavers – much as the fair trade movement appeals for a “just price” for small agricultural producers. If successful, this might be useful to other human rights victims who produce goods.

• For more on the people of Srebenica, read Iain Guest's blog.
• Visit BOSFAM’s website.
• Order BOSFAM’s products directly from their website.