Vermont and the U.S. Embassy: Empowered women, empowered voters

The “Vermont” Youth Centre works continuously and systematically to improve the status of women in our society, namely their social inclusion and activation, so that they can become drivers in the upcoming electoral process and thereby contribute to social development. In view of the programmes pursued by the organization, Mr Nicholas Geisinger, Assistant Cultural Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo, expressed a wish to visit the “Vermont” Youth Centre. The visit took place today, 15. May, beginning at 08:30, at the organization’s premises. Ivana Busić, who is responsible for working with American Corners in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also attended the meeting.

The meeting’s host, Damir Radenković, noted that one of the organization’s long-term goals is to motivate, encourage and empower women who, through their ideas, knowledge, skills and energy, will improve this year’s electoral process and help prevent and reduce the many problems women face today.

On this occasion, Mr Geisinger expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation with our organization to date on projects funded by the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. He noted that the success of our joint efforts this year would be measured in percentages—in other words, by the number of women we empower together and help take the positions in our society that rightfully belong to them. We will achieve all this through the implementation of the “Empowered Women, Empowered Voters” project, which the “Vermont” Youth Centre began implementing in May this year.

During the visit, we discussed the importance, experiences and results of cooperation between women in politics and government institutions at all levels and civil society activists in BiH, as well as the priorities for this cooperation.

“Improving the position of women in Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is the ultimate goal of the ‘Vermont’ Youth Centre, requires greater involvement by institutions and organizations in projects that build civil society capacity, better implementation of relevant policies at all levels, and stronger ties among all stakeholder groups. Accordingly, this series of activities to be carried out by the ‘Vermont’ Youth Centre in the coming period will focus on groups of women identified as insufficiently motivated and informed about the electoral process, all in an effort to achieve the intended objectives,” said project coordinator Slavojka Ranisović.

Today, those present also discussed the Together Against Corruption in Healthcare project, which aims to investigate corruption, educate patients and encourage the authorities to address widespread corruption in the healthcare system of Brčko District, BiH. The project is designed to educate patients about their rights, teach them to recognize various forms of unacceptable, corrupt and immoral conduct, and advise them on how to safely report unlawful activities.

We would like to remind you that these projects were made possible through the generous support of the American people via the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in the project do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Embassy or the U.S. Government, but solely those of the authors.