bridges for bosnia|Bosnia and Herzegovina

Give a voice to the rightless

We got to know Haris Cancar, an orphan, as a helpful and friendly young man, who helped us with activities at the home. However, he hasn’t been that good all the time. Often he couldn’t control his aggressivity, and the heads of his home didn’t know how to handle him. So Haris was brought to a closed institution for severely disabled people. Strong medication kept him quiet and now he also looks like a mentally disabled person. Being 17 years old he doesn’t go to any school, nor does he learn any profession. His path of life has ended there. The psychologist of the orphanage says that this is not the right place for him to be, but in Bosnia there are no other institutions for young people like him. We hardly can believe that! Is it really possible that young people are treated like this?

It is!

Please pray for Haris! He has no parents who care for him, his father is an alcoholic. Together with a church there we try to get him out of this institution, but there are many obstacles being put in our way. There is a place to live and supervision during the day, but besides that Haris will need a lot of additional help and care.

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Help until restoration
In post-war Bosnia first aid was prior. Many relief goods came into the country to ease the worst needs. Today there are still people who need this kind of help – if we think of the many elderly, who have to make a living with extremely low pensions. That’s where our project
poor@home takes action. But where we see most need is in the second phase: To assist
people to help themselves. We try to develop projects which bring forward autonomy. The greenhouse projects are well proven and we can see that the people we supported were encouraged to take initiative and they made further steps in their lives. Now we want to start another project:

Poor@home – Nina and Faruk Spahic
Nina and her husband Faruk came back to their home town Zenica in Bosnia togehter with their 2 children shortly after the war. What expected them there was unemployment, housing shortage and poverty. Their hopes for a good life were shattered. Then Nina’s experiencing the living God changed her life. In Jesus she found the way, the truth and life, and since then she has attended a free church. That’s where we met her. Nina and Faruk were given two greenhouses by Bridge of Hope, as we reported already. This investment turned out to be very successful. Nina and her husband are working hard with the talents given to them. Nina has already worked for our project poor@home for three years. Once a month she visits the families we chose to support with food packages financed by Austrian donators. Doing so she has revealed a lot of commitment and love for the people supported. As a local she really understands the situation of the people there. We hope that our second hand shop can give an occupation to some of those we look after in our project poor@home and help them escape from passivity and resignation.

Donate:         PayPal  /  bridges.for.bosnia@gmail.com

The good Samaritan
In the gospel of Luke we read a story which gives us a concept for helping people in need. It
begins with first aid, and ends not until at full recovery! Gospel of Luke 10:33-35:
33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he
took pity on him
34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. The he put the man
on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. „Look after
him“, he said, „and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may
have“
A strategic project that became exemplary for the work of „Bridge Of Hope“ in Bosnia.