Like other
residents of Sarajevo, I woke up the morning of May 14 surprised by the snow –
this winter is one for the record books! The May snowstorm snarled traffic (more
than usual) and damaged many beautiful trees in the city, but it did not stop
the dedicated young people and mayors from 27 different cities from gathering
in Sarajevo to promote YouthBanks, a
youth-led community development and conflict mitigation program sponsored by
USAID.
Just two
days earlier, on Saturday, May 12, I had the pleasure of opening the 15th
annual Civitas Project Citizen Showcase.
Nearly 300 young people from schools across Bosnia and Herzegovina, plus their
teachers and representatives from government, attended this conference. Each of the students earned the right to
attend by identifying problems in their communities and developing solutions to
improve their schools and communities.
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| Ambassador Moon at the 15th annual Civitas Project Citizen Showcase |
I was
amazed by the energy, enthusiasm, and intelligence of these young people. Not only do they have good ideas, but they’re
actually moving forward with their projects – they’ve taken their future into
their own hands. Without a doubt, I can
say that these events confirmed my belief that the young people of BiH are
ready to move their country into a prosperous future as a member of the
European Union and NATO. Unfortunately,
their ambitions and dreams continue to be slowed by political leaders who dwell
on the past, leaders who use the cheap tricks of ethnic politics to stay in
power.
Let me
tell you a bit more about these two events.
I saw some
incredibly creative projects being launched by students participating in the Project Citizen Showcase Finals. A group of students from Derventa is moving
forward to create a new park. Students
from Bijeljina have launched a campaign to curb violence in their school. In Gorazde, young people are asking the city
to not allow gambling near their school.
The threat posed by street dogs is being addressed by students from
Zivinice. Another student group from Trebinje
is promoting the benefits of exercise.
These are just a fraction of the excellent projects I saw at the Project Citizen Showcase Finals.
The YouthBanks event also focused on
homegrown ideas. About 300 young men and
women from across ethnic lines are now working together as part of USAID’s
“YouthBanks – Peacing the Future Together” project, which will result in more
than 600 youth-led projects through 32 YouthBanks by 2015.
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| YouthBanks Participants |
I
congratulate these young “bankers” for their work. I’m also proud of the 27 mayors who signed
partnership agreements to establish YouthBanks in their municipalities. By participating in this project, they not
only show that they care about the ideas and opinions of their youth, they are
committing to supporting their projects with financial contributions from the
local government. For each dollar
granted to youth groups, three additional dollars were mobilized from local
communities. So far, YouthBanks groups
have implemented 237 projects in their respective municipalities. These include refurbishing a kindergarten
playground and building a new basketball court.
Both YouthBanks and Project Citizen prove that it is possible to strengthen ties between
young people of BiH -- regardless of ethnic background – and to increase youth
participation in the development of BiH. I am truly inspired by these young women and
men. I just hope that the leaders of BiH
will start paying more attention to them.
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