FIET Commerce
FIET Central and Eastern Europe
20 January, 1998
Click on this thumbnail to view a large (100 Kb) group picture from the FIET women's seminar in Hungary
The FIET solidarity project
in Bosnia and Herzegovina
FIET Commerce FIET Central and Eastern Europe 20 January, 1998 |
Click on this thumbnail to view a large (100 Kb) group picture from the FIET women's seminar in Hungary |
The FIET solidarity project in Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Women trade unionists can play an important role in the war recovery and reconstruction in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is reftlected also in the FIET trade union solidarity project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. An important aim of the project is to support training and other activities for women and particularly to give women trade unionists a chance to build networks.
It all started in Balatonliga in Hungary, where more than forty women from Bosnia and Herzegovina came together for a September week in 1997. The participants in this FIET women's seminar represented all the major population groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina and they came from both entities, the Federation and the Serb Republic. In addition to working with the immediate challenges in their own country, they discussed privatisation and trade union work also with colleagues from Germany and Hungary. The seminar itself was made possible through support from FIET's German affiliates Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft DAG and Gerwerkschaft Handel, Banken und Versicherungen HBV. It was arranged in co-operation with Hungarian commerce affiliate KASz.
The FIET project was discussed with Jan Furstenborg, who assured the participants that women's activities will remain a top priority and that the project will continue to support such activities in all parts and both entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina on an equal basis.
Later in the year, the September seminar has been followed up by women's courses in Zenica and Laktashi. Here, participants have dealt particularly with the psychological wounds that the war has caused and with how to work with them. The women, who have been engaged in the project activities, have also started to build networks and are in regular contact with each other.
Mostar is an important centre for women's activities. Here, the FIET project has supported particularly the work done at the so-called Swiss House, which is a community centre that brings together women of all nationalities and which supports the efforts of women workers to secure gainful employment. The senior FIET project representative in Mostar in Zelja Grubecic, who is also one of the pillars of women's work in this still divided town. In December, the first employment course for women started in Swiss House, using computers that have been provided by the FIET project.
The FIET Solidarity Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina
With FIET in Mostar, picture page (takes time to load!)
Our e-mail address is: jan_furstenborg@fiet.org