Love Tripping: Day 8 (June 18, 2012) - University of Sarajevo and Family Counseling Center

Today we walked to the University where we sat in on two lectures specifically for our group. The school of social is in the department of Political Science. The school of social work has something like 5000 students and a handful of professors. The building is big and only recently did it have air conditioning, which on a day like today, I can’t imagine it without. The classrooms are huge, and I’m thinking much, much larger than our max 20 persons classrooms at DU.

The first lecturer was Professor Asim Mujkic, who discussed political culture within an ethno-nationalist country. He spoke about how there are 3 ethnicities within Bosnia and that is how each person identifies that other, however the culture is no different, just the religion. Political relevance of candidates and voters is reduced to ethnic relevance. The political laws stay that the people of Bosnia are subjects (meaning subjecting to the nation) as opposed to citizens. In the constitution, Americans were initially identified as subjects and later identified as citizens.

Due to the 3 separate ethnical parties in the government, those who identify with that specific ethnic group must vote within their group. If you do not vote, you receive a letter in the mail telling you that you have to, whether you agree with the candidates or not. Interesitng fact, Jews cannot run for President because they are considered a minority population and therefore do not qualify as an important part of the elections.

Professor Mujkic explains his frustrations with current politics and society and the inability to change. He states that what Bosnia needs is a constitution with “ethnically blind” laws, that encourage multi-ethnicity. He believes that Bosnia cannot be taken seriously as a country because unlike other European countries, Bosnia does not allow the right for every citizen to elect and be elected.

Professor Mujkic is very passionate about this need for change but also very discouraged about the possibility of change.

Our next lecture was with Professor Sanela Basic who spoke about social work in Bosnia. She said that during the war more than 1 million people fled the country and many still have not returned. 11,000 people were killed and of that 1,601 were children. 50,000 people were injured and of that 14,946 were children. Material war damages totaled 14 billion Euros.

The challenge with social work in Bosnia (besides that large graduating class) is they do not follow international social work guidelines. For one thing, they are not mandated reporters, which raises some significant concerns about the welfare of children, women, and other individuals at risk of violence.

In 2001, 19.5% of the population was under the general poverty line and 30% was slightly above the poverty line. By 2007, there was a 14% increase in poverty rates. Today the official unemployment rates are 27%, the unofficial rates are 45%. Having just graduated with my Masters Degree in Social Work, I find it really hard to imagine entering the workforce with such a huge poverty rate and unemployment rate. In addition to suffering through a tragic war, a large number of Bosnians are struggling to survive and provide for their families. Then you factor in the significant amount of corruption within the country and who has power, money, and authority and who doesn’t. Is Bosnia a better country than it was before the war?

We asked Sanela how she was able to do the work tht she does with such restrictions and limitations. She was able to say that her motivation comes from her children and wanting them to grow up in a different and more normal country.

The most amazing part of this lecture with Sanela is that today was the exact day that her father died in the Bosnian War 20 years ago. She apologized to our entire group because she felt that she was not mentally present during this lecture. Talk about one of the most humbling experiences. This woman apologized to us for her distraction of the anniversary or her fathers’ death!

Then we took a short walk to an agency that does family counseling. We were able to sit down with some of the treatment team and ask them questions. The interesting thing about the agency is that they have the counseling center and then they have a research facility too. Of course, after our lectures I thought it would be interesting to know if they had done any research on the ethnicity of their clients, such as what percentage of their clients were of the 3 ethnic groups. When I asked this question and the translator explained it to the treatment team, it seemed to cause an uproar. I clearly offended them and with good reason. They didn’t understand why I would ask a question like that because it doesn’t apply to the work that they do with their clients. I just thought it’d be interesting to know…

The counseling team has noticed an increase in teen violence, and mostly peer violence related to online bullying and harassment. They have most successful in school with regards to de-stigmatizing therapy and becoming more away of problems that children and teens are facing. It seems to be a great program and they are marketing themselves rather successfully.

Later that day Heidi, Michelle, Ann, and I went to the Sarajevsko Brewery and had an amazing dinner, where we ordered WAY too much and laughed a ton! It was a great dinner and different from our typical (and amazing) Bosnian burek, cavapci, and cabbage salad.