Our Work

Together with our partners, we stand with the most vulnerable boys and girls in their strive to reach their full potential and become empowered agents of change towards restored and socially coherent communities. 

WV has worked since 1994 in BiH, implementing post-war recovery, community development, emergency relief and promotion of justice programmes for the well-being of children and their families, focusing especially on the most vulnerable. 

With its long-term strategic presence in both administrative BiH entities[1] and current operations in over 30 municipalities of BiH, the results of WV’s interventions have been available and accessible to more than one-third of the population over almost 25 years of operations. 

Children and families have recognized and embraced our approach and we continue to work together to eliminate violence against children; improve educational conditions, economic opportunities, and livelihoods, as well as the safety and security of communities in BiH. 

Working to eliminate neglect and violence against children in all its forms is at the core of our child protection work. To this end, World Vision has initiated the establishment and capacity building of inter-sectoral Child Well-Being Groups (CWBG) in 27 municipalities in BiH. These groups comprise of the municipality, police, welfare centres’, medical-care centre’s, schools’ and youth organisations’ representatives, all working together to address issues affecting the well-being of children. 

World Vision’s role as an adhesive among municipal institutions, and strengthening local child protection mechanisms bore fruit in empowering CWBGs to create local action-plans for children. So far, 20 municipal authorities within BiH officially adopted CWBG proposed local action-plans with concrete measures to improve childhoods on the local level. Also, World Vision BiH supports 20 youth organisations and faith-based youth centres in their work to promote non-violent communications and alternatives to violent behaviours.

Improving quality and access to education is the second pillar of our work in BiH. Only in the past 10 years, 150.000 children have participated and benefited through World Vision projects to improve education, extracurricular activities and school sections, educational, creative and sports workshops and competitions, children's ideas fairs, debates and camps in primary and secondary schools in rural areas. 

Working with families to leave the vicious circle of poverty, World Vision BiH has assisted most vulnerable families in delivering seedlings, green-houses, and cattle in rural areas and promoting entrepreneurship and self-employment in semi-urban areas. ‘Graduation from poverty’ is a recent notable project delivering systemic assistance and socio-economic support to 50 families across BiH. 

Our commitment and motivation to working with the most vulnerable children have made World Vision BiH an organization whose work with the most vulnerable children is recognized in local communities, local authorities and organizations, as well as nationally. 

Another aspect of our work is enhancing the safety and security of children and families in BiH. World Vision BiH strives to raise awareness and empower local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in their capacity to effectively respond to natural disasters, as well as purposefully engage with relevant, better-capacitated and well-coordinated services and decision-making mechanisms while placing focus on children. With our partners, we conducted 724 multi-hazard assessment in primary schools in BiH. Finding the assessment results devastating – only 10% of primary schools in the Federation of BiH are resilient to disasters – WV BiH continues to educate children and adults on the risks and equip local rescue service to promote their ability to respond. So far, 4.250 people have received capacity building in disaster-risk-reduction.

World Vision BiH is called to respond not only to the needs of people in BiH, but also vulnerable children and people arriving and passing through Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Western-Balkans refugee route. World Vision BiH is one of the first humanitarian organizations that responded to meet the basic needs of children and their parents within the most recent refugee movement, since 2018. The main pillars of our response programme are Child-Friendly Spaces, Mother-Baby Corner, educational, recreational, vocational and social activities. Since 2018, we have reached 15.295 people on the go.

Religious communities, in addition to local institutions and organizations, are an important pillar of community life, and our close collaboration with them is a competitive advantage that allows us to easily identify vulnerable children, families, and communities. Building on the network of relationships that religious institutions have in the community, World Vision BiH provides support to those who truly need support.
By 2023, through integrated programming focused on child development in coherent communities, WV BiH will partner for impact and contribute to quality development outcomes for 280,000 boys and girls, age 0-18, in BiH.

 [1] Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska