Twenty families from Prijedor, including five displaced families and 15 returnee families, signed the contracts for assistance in economic sustainability on 4 March 2016. The assistance is secured through the 8.1 million EUR worth project „Support to durable solutions of the Revised strategy for implementation of Annex VII of the Dayton Peace Agreement“, which is funded by the European Union (in the amount of 7 million euro through IPA 2012 programme), co-funded and implemented by UNHCR in cooperation with seven project partners in ten priority municipalities in BiH.
By signing the contracts as part of the implementation of the project also known as „My Place under the Sun“, four families from Prijedor received agricultural machines, six families received 150 m2 greenhouses with irrigation system, eight families received pregnant cows and heifers, and two families received 20 sheep. “This donation will economically support and strengthen these families and help alleviate and improve their integration and reintegration in the society,” Božica Pavković-Đurić, Project Coordinator of the organization Bosnian Humanitarian Logistics Service (BHLS), said at the signing ceremony thanking the City of Prijedor for the technical support, participation in the Working group for economic sustainability and for helping beneficiaries to collect the documents necessary for the participation in the project including exemption from tax when collecting the necessary documentation.
Smail Šumić from Donja Ljubija, one of the beneficiaries of the donation who received a pregnant heifer, said at the signing ceremony: “Now we have a cow and a calf, and you can imagine what this means to a ten-member family.”
Bosnian Humanitarian Logistics Service (BHLS) is tasked with the implementation of the economic viability component of the project “My Place under the Sun”, and by the end of 2016, it will provide assistance for another 60 of the most vulnerable families of internally displaced persons and returnees in Prijedor, Gradiška, Derventa and Bosanski Petrovac.
“This is a very important day for these families, but also for all of us. Prijedor is a city with the largest number of returnees, refugees and displaced persons in BiH, and this is why I want to thank the European Union and UNHCR as project donors, and the Bosnian Humanitarian Logistics Service (BHLS), which has implemented these activities“, Milenko Đaković, Deputy Mayor of the City of Prijedor said at the signing ceremony.
The purpose of the project „Support to durable solutions of the Revised strategy for implementation of Annex VII of the Dayton Peace Agreement“ is to assist at least 2.400 vulnerable displaced persons and returnees in BiH, including women victims of war, in finding solutions to social challenges that they are facing every day, through close cooperation between local authorities, local community, civil society and project partners, together with the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In cooperation with the local authorities, the project partners are identifying the needs of displaced persons and returnees with the aim of strengthening their social protection and inclusion, provision of health protection for the elderly, education for the children, provision of free legal aid, psycho-social counselling and housing. The project started in 2014 and will be implemented until 2016 in the municipalities of Bosanski Petrovac, Gradiška, Prijedor, Derventa, Maglaj, Bijeljina, Živinice, Mostar, Foča, as well as in the Brčko District,.
Project implementation partners include the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), International Organisation for Migrations (IOM), Hilfswerk Austria International (HWA), Bosnian Humanitarian Logistic Service (BHLS), Foundation of Local Democracy (FLD), and Vaša prava BiH Association.
