Based out of the Netherlands, Charity: Bosnian Kids is a nonprofit that provides school lunches for children in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Started in May 2018, their efforts are picking up speed as the effects of COVID-19 are felt across the globe.
We chatted with Almasa Cerimovic (see above) and the rest of the founders — Alen Toric and Ermina Hott about how the charity started, their goals for 2020, and how the diaspora can get involved.
Before you go donate, take a moment to hear the founders’ stories below.
1. Can you tell us a little bit more about your organization, Charity: Bosnian Kids? How was it started?
Almasa: Many Bosnian families that are living in poverty are not able to pay for the lunch that is provided to children in school. This is why children get excluded from lunch at school on a daily basis. As a consequence, these children face hunger and discrimination which results in negative effects on their cognitive and social development in the long run. We provide a daily lunch for kids whose parents cannot afford to pay. We make sure no kids are excluded from the lunch and that 100% of every donation goes to this cause. In our opinion food is a primary necessity a child should not worry about.
I have been following the charity’s work from the beginning but wanted to get actively involved. So I offered Alen my help and officially joined Charity Bosnian Kids in June 2019. We realized there were many opportunities for growth in terms of our impact, so we brought our ideas together to continue with the work the charity has been doing since its foundation.
Alen: In 2016, I received a request from a Bosnian school to donate school lunches to those children whose parents could not afford to pay. I did a donation and moved on, as many people do. Months later, I received a ‘thank you’-letter, stating that the donations covered for the lunches of 60% of the children. The idea of Bosnian children, who are daily excluded from the school lunch, affected me and I decided to organize an online fundraiser for these kids.
I managed to raise enough funds to cover for all the lunches for the kids at this school, who would have been excluded from the lunch otherwise. Ermina, Alma and I continued with fundraising using our social media channels. At this point in time we supported 40 children. In May 2018, we started Charity: Bosnian Kids officially and in that year we covered the daily school lunches for 81 children. By now this number has increased to 149 children. Our goal for the next school year is to provide for a daily lunch at school for 300 children.
Ermina: I worked with children in Sarajevo. I have seen the daily struggle of children, from being hungry, to being scared because they do not want to be labeled the “poor kid.” Because of this, children are unable to focus, have difficulties learning and cannot achieve their full potential. Even though the teachers are trying to help the children, I realized that something more needs to be done. People need to be aware of this problem, and we should try to solve it together. Exploring possible solutions, I found Alen, who had been helping children by raising money for a daily meal for elementary school Porodice Ef. Ramić. Together we discussed ways to raise awareness of this problem among people. In the meantime, with great help from Alma, we have started fundraising for elementary school Mirsad Prnjavorac on GoFundMe, we raised € 1,555 for 40 children.
2. Did you guys know each other before starting Charity Bosnian Kids?
Ermina: Thanks to Charity Bosnian Kids I got the opportunity to meet Alen, Almasa, Alma. That brought me a lot of happiness, we share the same vision and we all have a strong wish to help children in need.
Alen: I had known Alma and Almasa for a long time. Ermina and I got to know each other through the online fundraising work we have been doing. In fact, we found out that we have more in common than our passion for helping children in need. We now live together 🙂
3. What challenges have you had to overcome while working with the school system in BiH?
Ermina: The biggest challenge in terms of the school system is that it is different from the most systems in other countries, so we had to make a lot of efforts to explain to donors why children do not have daily lunch at school and why children do not carry daily lunch from home to school. Bringing daily lunch to school is not a common thing in Bosnian schools, and for children to do so would mean social differentiation from other children. Our plan, in collaborating with schools, is to work on changing the system and introducing group-made daily lunches in schools, or bringing lunch from home.
4. Is there a specific area where lunches are concentrated? Do you have partnerships with certain schools?
Ermina: There is no specific area, we currently cover schools from different cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. From the elementary school in the Bosanska Otoka, and their regional schools in the villages, to the schools in Zenica and Sarajevo. Our goal is to raise enough funds to help even more schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina. But also to be able to continue to provide help for the schools we already support.
5. How can diaspora get involved?
This is something we have been brainstorming about lately. Through our work from the last few years, we received much support from our community. At the same time, we noticed that many people from the diaspora are also willing to help. We really believe in making an impact together, which is why we are looking for volunteers and ambassadors as well.
Volunteers offer their time or skills to help our organization in different ways. You can help us to host an event, create digital posters, edit photos for social media etc.
Ambassadors are people who promote our charity and who collect funds on behalf of our charity on a structural basis. Since we follow the school calendar, our fundraising campaign has a yearly cycle. Ambassadors activate their network and inspire others to donate.
If you want to help right away, these are the 5 most popular ways to contribute:
- Make a monthly donation: https://charitybosniankids.org/donate-monthly/
- Make a one-time donation: https://charitybosniankids.org/donate/
- Start your own online fundraiser: https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/fundraisers/start/?fundraiser.projids=39711
- Speak about Charity: Bosnian Kids with family, friends and colleagues. Many people have motivated others to donate, started a birthday fundraiser, collected funds at work or at an event, discussed with their boss whether the employer is willing to donate.
- Post about us on social media and tag @charitybosniankids
6. What are some of the organization’s goals in 2020? (I.e. is there a certain number of how many lunches you’d like to supply, etc.)
Alen: Our first milestone is to provide lunch at school for 300 children on a daily basis.
We will also help the kids and their families during the Corona crisis. As we have seen the impact of this pandemic on a large number of Bosnian people, we wanted to provide those families with primary necessities. Families are facing severe difficulties, this will make the already difficult situation in Bosnia even worse. We started to raise funds for food packages that will be distributed to these families and our goal is to continue doing this.