Alumni Impact: Making a Difference in Bijeljina

Students from Bosnia-Herzegovina who participated in a FIUTS Youth Leadership Program tell the story of how they organized a fundraiser in their town. 

Branko, Srđan, Anđela, Dušića, Zorana, Tamara, and Igor - the team of students and teachers who organized the concert

Twice a year, FIUTS welcomes groups of high school students and teachers from Bosnia-Herzegovina for Youth Leadership Programs here in Seattle. Participants receive training in project management and community service. Once they return to Bosnia, they put their new skills to work, producing real projects to address an issue in their own communities.

Earlier this month, a group of alums from last Spring's program produced a large concert in their home town of Bijeljina as a fundraiser for two local sisters battling the disease Lafora. The concert raised $1,706. Over 500 people attended, and the event also received substantial media attention in the local area.

The post below is from Tamara, one of the student leaders, who describes the process of producing the concert and the success they experienced when the project was complete.

Several newspapers ran articles featuring the concert and the local girls who would benefit from it

I can't express in any words how happy we are that our concert went so great. But let me start from the very beginning, till the end of it.

From the 1st of February, we have been sending invitations to people in higher positions from our town, sticking posters to all the "commercial" boards and other spaces in Bijeljina and schools, and of course, we invited people through the internet. There are many TV and radio stations who interviewed us before the concert (such as Pan Radio, BN television, Slobomir), so that they can help us promote it.

The very concert day:

As you already know, it was this Tuesday (February 19) at 8 pm in our town Culture Centre. We came there at 6pm to make everything ready (the day before we had a rehearsal so participants and equipment were all ready!). We first brought up the food and drinks upstairs (we bought sandwiches, cookies and juices for all our participants, employers in Culture Centre who helped us with the technical part, and friends from Orasje). When the participants would start coming, we would take them to their dressing rooms and later take them to the room with food and drinks.

The audience filling up the concert hall

While two from our team were trying to help our participants feel comfortable, the other five of us were already welcoming people who would come upstairs to the main hall where the concert was happening with the ticket they bought, and 90% of them I would say gave some extra money in the two boxes we put there for their contributions. Andjela and I were also giving interviews for those same stations.

The hall can take 348 people, but more than 500 people came. The concert lasted from 8:00pm till 9:40pm,and people stayed till the end and were congratulating us on the exit after the concert had ended. Our participants were fabulous: first on the stage came three dancers from the dance club "megadance" with three different choreographs, then choir "Libero" with six songs, afterward ethnic group "Bisernica" also with many songs and in the end our rock'n'roll band from my school. The audience was clapping, singing, dancing for the whole time!

More than 100 people were standing on the side of the hall from the beginning till the end, so it just means the concert was great. In the first rows were our dear guests, friends from Orasje and parents.

Dancers performing onstage

We counted the money at the end of the concert and we said it at the end of the concert to the audience: The amount was $1,706!

I hope I didn't forget anything relevant, but the most important thing is that we did this from our hearts, collected the money for helping to save two young lives, promoted how a few people with a strong will can make a difference, and of course, Youth Leadership Program that taught us everything.

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Youth Leadership Programs are sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the FIUTS Youth Leadership Program with Bosnia and Herzegovina here, and click here for details on how to host a participating student or teacher for a homestay during an upcoming program.