How We Began And Developed
The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1995), with ethnic cleansing as its main goal, resulted in mass killings, destruction, and enormous migrations. These events caused a series of traumatic experiences, many of them painful and life-threatening, various long-term stressful changes in lifestyle, and huge losses for people. In March of 1994, a group of women from Dortmund, Germany, supported by women from Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, initiated the founding of the Vive 容ne organization. The purpose of this organization was to provide immediate, efficient, and ongoing psychosocial care to women and children with difficult traumatic experiences and various forms of abuse (psychological, physical, and sexual).
According to a model proposed by foreign experts, Vive 容ne was founded during the war. Vive 容ne had to go through many difficult changes in order to adjust its programs to fit the local context. Not only was it difficult to understand psycho-social and psychological work, but also the term "non-governmental organization" was unfamiliar to us at that time. Yet, this was not an obstacle for the Vive 容ne personnel who devoted themselves to women and children with so much enthusiasm, patriotism, and knowledge. The chaotic circumstances in the country reflected to the Organization itself -- no one paid much attention to how the Organization was formally structured and what tasks each staff member should be responsible for.
From 1994 to 1997 our work at Vive 容ne was focused on war trauma and refugees, primarily women and children. The therapeutic treatment we provided then lasted anywhere from six to eight months. Besides the psychotherapeutic treatment, women and children who stayed at our Center also received complete medical, social, and pedagogical care. That was the so-called "first phase" of the recovery process. The "second phase" included steps to build independence. In other words, women and children who were in the "second phase" of recovery, had a chance to attend different educational courses and seminars in addition to getting psychological support. The "third phase" was an agricultural project through which women were able to work and provide for their existence.
This model of work was devised by our foreign donors (founders), and it was not adjusted to the local context and real needs of our beneficiaries. Despite that, the model was important during the war when our clients needed some basic security. We kept the model with "phases" for some time after the war because it allowed the beneficiaries to work on their inner needs and become stronger after they had worked on their trauma.
Toward the end of 1997, the Organization debated its model of work for the first time. In the meantime (1996), local people became the Organization's managers. However, essential decisions related to the Organization's development continued to be our donors' (founders') privilege. That led to a very tense situation inside the Organization.
Given that the structure of our team, our roles, duties, and responsibilities were still not clear, our initial enthusiasm and energy gradually turned into exhauster, weariness, and fatigue. At that time, all of our energy was spent trying to solve the internal problems.
That period was a very critical phase in the development of Vive 容ne. It seemed that we were either not following our vision or that the vision was not clear to everyone.
Because the staff of Vive 容ne was unfamiliar with the term 'NGO' and the process of organizational development and worried about the job security, it was hard for them to decide if they even wanted any changes. Two years of negotiations, analysis, comparison, and argumentation passed before we were able to make some changes in our model of work. In those two years we moved from a chaotic, informal division of labor to a formal one.
It is interesting that the relationship with our donor, who still insisted on keeping the model of "phases," did not change much once we had implemented structural changes and divided our roles and responsibilities within the team.
The majority of our personnel were aware of that fact that the changes in our work had to be made because we seemed to be moving away from the reality in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But we still needed the foreign experts to confirm that we were on the right track. Only after we had received that confirmation in 1999, it was possible for us to make changes in our work.
On a certain level, our initial fear of change proved to be realistic because it caused Vive 容ne to lose its founding donor. However, the Organization was able to overcome the crisis and secure new sources of funding by making quick changes, developing a new model of work, implementing a new organizational structure, training its staff members, and achieving good results.
Hence, from 1999 to 2001, Vive 容ne worked using a new model. The focus was still on war trauma and refugee population with an emphasis on the work with victims of abuse (i.e., out-patient services). Our work with refugees took place in the community, primarily in refugee settlements. The Center's multidisciplinary team was involved in psycho-social work inside the very Center -that is, inside the shelter - and in the community.
As the scope of work and projects within Vive 容ne continue to expand, we realized that we needed a new facility. Since we knew that our Organization had been successful in implementing its programs, achieving great results, and gaining trust from foreign donors and local community, we contacted our donors with a request for financial support. At the same, time we asked the local government for their assistance, too.
Based on our successful collaboration and the donors' trust in us during the past period, we received a positive response from them. Iamaneh Organization secured funds from the Government Ministry from Holland. Tuzla Municipality, which had always showed its readiness and openness to collaborate with us, made a decision to grant us land for the new facility. These efforts led to what we have today - a modern facility with the design and professional staff that meet both European and world standards.
Toward the end of 2002, our program went through another set of changes, that is, the shelter became "flexible." Since then, there have been no closed groups to be admitted there for a specific time period. Today the Center is open to anyone in crisis, so that our out-patient services, work in the community, and services in the shelter complement one another.
