Bus action 'Space for the Youth!' (15 – 22 August)

OIA started the action 'Space for the Youth!' on 14 August by putting a protest stand and tents in front of the state institutions and by presenting 8 Demands of the Youth from the BH Government: Adopt a law on higher education! Create measures for youth employment! Form state department/directorate for BH youth! Establish BH children and youth Foundation! Invest 12 millions KM from the selling of Marsalka into Campus! Introduce IT into all schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina! Plan a strategy of inclusion of BH youth diaspora into development of Bosnia and Herzegovina! Create a model of multifunctional centres for youth leisure time!

The following day bus action was initiated and its goal was opening the subject of space for the youth on the local level, and it ended on 22 August.

Some 30 young activists walked over 1500 km through 24 cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo – Sokolac – Vlasenica –Milići – Zvornik – Tuzla – Ugljevik – Bijeljina – Brčko – Gradačac – Modriča – Derventa – Prnjavor – Banja Luka – Prijedor – Bosanski Novi – Bihać – Ključ – Mrkonjić Grad – Zenica – Kakanj – Mostar – Jablanica – Konjic – Sarajevo).

Ten meetings were held with mayors, administration representatives, and councillors of municipality councils. Seven hundred memos were presented personally to the councillors and mayors in the cities visited, 4 km of tape were used to mark the space for the youth, several street actions were organized in order to animate the citizens who sent over 3000 letters to the mayors of municipalities with their message why should they invest in young people, and over 100 appearances in media…

The basic conclusions of the bus action are that local authorities in general are open for cooperation with the youth, that there are some excellent examples in several municipalities of the of the youth-government relationship, for instance the newly opened youth centre with 3000 square meters in Brčko, establishment of business and technology centre in Tuzla, idea of making a youth complex on the lake in Gradačac, as well as recently opened youth centre in Vlasenica.
However, it is evident that most of the municipalities still do not have a clear vision on how to support the young people, do not have enough ideas about which measures should be conducted, and this is contributed by the passivity of young people who are disoriented, do not understand the complicated political system and who lack the practice of lobbying and communication with the government. The action itself has certainly given a number of fresh and useful ideas to the local authorities and supported the local organizations and initiative. In the next week a one-hour documentary about the action will be shown on BHT, and during September a pamphlet or a guidebook will be prepared on how should local authorities create measures and projects to improve the position of youth and establish better mutual communication.

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