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Who We Are
(On
April 12, 2004 we changed our name from Friends of Bosnia
to the Center for Balkan Development.)
The Center for Balkan Development is a
network of more than a thousand people in the United States,
Canada, and Europe working to help the region of the former
Yugoslavia rebuild and create a peaceful and prosperous future.
Our vision is one of peace and reconciliation, of human strength
and economic recovery. To achieve that vision, we continue
to support reconstruction efforts in the former Yugoslavia
through innovative projects in local communities. We provide
financial assistance where it will make the most difference.
And we continue to spotlight for the American public the past
and present realities of the region.
At the Center for Balkan Development, our idea of helping
the former Yugoslavia rebuild isn’t just to send money
overseas and hope it will do some good. We’ve always
been deeply and personally involved in concrete efforts that
create real change.
During the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the
Center for Balkan Development sent four containers
of food, medical supplies, clothing, and school supplies to
war victims trying to survive under impossible conditions.
Members of the Center for Balkan Development
accompanied these deliveries to ensure that the supplies actually
reached those who desperately needed them. The
Center for Balkan Development staff also made a difficult
winter journey over Mount Igman to deliver aid to Sarajevo
and other locations throughout Bosnia.
Today our efforts are focused on reconstruction in the former
Yugoslavia and public education in the United States, as we
work toward more permanent solutions to the economic stagnation
caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing wars.
We strongly believe that the region will achieve permanent
peace only when it enjoys a viable economy. Only then will
people be able to focus on building a future for themselves
and their families.
The Center for Balkan Development
is a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization.
1995-2006
Major Projects
Partnering with Connecticut Friends of Bosnia to Build Homes for Srebrenica DPs
Since 2004 , Connecticut Friends of Bosnia (CFOB) from Greenwich, Conn. has partnered with CBD to help implement projects in Bosnia. Most of their work involves rebuilding homes for families who were driven from their communities in the waves of ethnic cleansing that swept the country.
Campaign to Arrest Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic
The goal of this campaign is to see that Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are arrested and brought to The Hague to stand trial for crimes committed at Srebrenica and at other locations in Bosnia.
Lessons Learned from the Balkan Conflicts, October 2004
This two-day conference looked back at what the international
community has learned from the wars in the Balkans and look
forward to viable solutions for reconstruction, reconciliation,
and lasting security—both from the perspective of the
former Yugoslavia and also as a laboratory for those doing
similar work in other parts of the world, specifically Afghanistan
and Iraq.
Stari Most Awards , October 2004
The Center for Balkan Development is honored
to announce the winners of the first Stari Most Awards. A
panel of 13 judges carefully reviewed nominations and selected
three winners from a pool of 23 candidates.
The winners were honored at an awards ceremony on
October 16, 2006 at Boston College as part of the Lessons
Learned in the Balkan Conflicts conference.
The
New Initiative 2002-2004
Friends of Bosnia has received a $135,000
grant from the World Bank to implement an innovative new approach
to development in Tuzla, Bosnia. The project, The New Initiative,
will work with local NGOs, the Tuzla municipality, and private
businesses to improve public infrastructure and to provide
job-creating investments through a series of work festivals
commencing in spring, 2002.
Support
for The Center for Information Technology, 2000-2002
Since 2000, Friend of Bosnia has contributed
$25,000 to the Tuzla Center for Information Technology to
create a school for computers and information technology.
Tenth
Anniversary Commemoration of Wars in the Former Yugoslavia,
April 2002
On the tenth anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo, Friends
of Bosnia organized a week-long series of lectures, exhibits,
films, and concerts in the Boston area to commemorate the
10th anniversary of wars in the former Yugoslavia. Keynote
speaker was Mirza Kusljugic, Bosnian Ambassador to the UN,
and John Shattuck, former Assistant Secretary of State for
Human Rights.
Outreach
Bosnia, 2000-2002
Friends of Bosnia is launching a major
new initiative in eastern Bosnia, Outreach Bosnia, to help
returning refugees and long-time residents rebuild their communities
five years after the end of the war. Chris Bragdon from Ithaca,
NY, is directing this project and has already achieved significant
success both with fundraising and implementing the program
Reconstructing
Kosovo
A
documentary photography/ text exhibit on war, reconstruction
and reconciliation in Kosovo. Photographs by Glenn Ruga and
Frank Ward with text by Barbara Ayotte.
Available for exhibition in colleges, galleries, museums,
libraries and other public exhibition spaces. Since October
2000, the exhibit has been shown at 6 locations including
Brandeis, Tufts, Stanford, and Georgetown Universities
Cultural
Heritage Reconstruction in Kosovo
July 2000 - September 2002
Friends of Bosnia, in collaboration with the Kosovo Cultural
Heritage Project from Cambridge, has received a grant from
the Packard Humanities Institute in Palo Alto, California
to reconstruct three important cultural monuments in Kosovo
that were destroyed or badly damaged by Serb forces prior
to and during the war last year in Kosovo.
Medical
Aid for Kosovo
On November 27, 2000, Friends of
Bosnia sent $10,000 worth of donated medical supplies to the
Prosthetics Clinic at the Pristina Hospital
Emergency
aid to Kosovar refugees in Macedonia
April, 1999
Shortly after the war began in Kosovo on March 24, 1999, Friends
of Bosnia director Glenn Ruga traveled to the Kosovo/Macedonia
border to deliver emergency aid and to document the plight
of refugees. Since returning, Ruga has spoken at more than
twelve public meetings and to numerous radio, and TV stations
and newspapers about the war in Kosovo. FOB also raised $8000
for Kosovo relief and contributed $5000 to El Hilal, a Macedonian
relief organization working with Kosovar refugees.
Roads
to Reconciliation: Peacebuilding in the Former Yugoslavia
October-November, 1998
FOB collaborated with the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding
and the UMass Office of Jewish Affairs to organized a series
of lectures and events with peace activists from the former
Yugoslavia. Speakers included Jakob Finci from Sarajevo, Mirha
Kratina from Zenica, Bosnia, Lidija Obad from Osiek, Croatia,
and Dragan Popadic from Belgrade, Serbia.
Washington
Press Conference on Kosovo
On July 28, 1998 FOB organized a
press conference with Congressman John Olver to present a
letter to the president signed by 80 members of Cognress demanding
a more forceful response to aggression by Belgrade in Kosovo.
We also presented a petition to the president signed by 18,000
people demanding for the arrest of Radko Mladic and Radovan
Karadzic.
Reconstruction/Aid
Project, 1998
FOB sent a 40-ft. container of medical
supplies, school supplies, and computers to Bosnia in November,
1998. The aid will help foster reconstruction and training
for refugees and others who have lost their livelihood as
a result of the war.
In
Search of a Nation: Restoring a Multiethnic Bosnia
April 1998
A conference at Wellesley College to discuss the historial
basis for multiethnicity in Bosnia, current political dynamics
in the Balkans including Kosovo and Serbia, US foreign policy,
and the International Criminal Tribunal. There was also opportunties
to discuss grassroots activism supporting justice in the Balkans.
Medical
Aid Drive: Healing the Wounds of War
Jan.-Aug. 1997
Friends of Bosnia teamed up with St. Elizabeth�s Hospital
in Boston to collect $350,000 worth of medical supplies from
hospitals and other medical facilities in New England and
shipped the supplies to medical centers in Bosnia in August,
1997.
Bosnia: The Thin Veneer
May-June, 1997
Friends of Bosnia is teaming up with scholars from the University
of Massachusetts to mount a major exhibit about Bosnian culture.
The exhibit will be displayed April-June 1997 at the University
of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center Gallery.
Bosnia: Road to Recovery
March 1-2, 1997
This two day national conference at Amherst College attended
by activists, scholars, students, government officials and
NGOs from across the United States focusing on the political,
economic and social problems associated with the rebuilding
of Bosnia.
The Role of the Jewish
Community in Sarajevo During the War
Presentation by FOB director Glenn
Ruga about the history of Judaism in the Balkans and the role
of the Jewish community of Sarajevo during the recent war.
The
Hidden Genocide: Critical Perspectives on Rape and the War
in Bosnia
November, 1996
This is a two-part program about mass rape in Bosnia The program
will include Beverly Allen, author of Rape Warfare: The
Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.; a
new video about mass rape in Bosnia, Calling the Ghosts:
A Story about Rape, War and Women., and a speaker panel
with two women survivors from rape camps.
Zones
of Separation: The Struggle for a Multi-ethnic Bosnia
A documentary photo/text exhibit
on the war in Bosnia and the lives of people who have lived
through four years of ethnic cleansing. The exhibit has been
shown at the Northampton Center for the Arts in Massachusetts,
The University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, Brown University,
Amherst College, the Embassy of Bosnia Herzegovina in Washington,
DC, the LIPA Gallery, Washington, DC, Mount Holyoke College
in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and the Greensboro, NC public
libary. Other venues are being planned.
Sarajevo/Northampton
June, 1996
A month-long series of exhibits, performances and videos featuring
art from and about Bosnia.
No Justice, No Peace:
The War Crimes Tribunal and the Prospects for Peace in the
Former Yugoslavia
April, 1995
Three experts speaking on the International War Crimes Tribunal;
Steve Walker from the American Committee to Save Bosnia; Susannah
Sirkin from Physicians for Human Rights; and Michael Scharf,
author of An Insider's Guide to the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
Board
of Directors
Glenn Ruga
President
Creative Director
Visual Communications
Maynard, Mass.
Veton Kepuska
Associate Professor
Florida Institute of Technology
Melbourne, Florida
Mary Ellen Keough, MPH
Secretary
Director of Eduation
Meyers Primary Care Institute
Worcester, Mass.
Rob Wilson
Director
Veterans Education Project
Hatfield, Mass.
Sheri Fink, M.D.
Author of War Hospital
International emergency medical consultant
New York, NY
Stephen Walker
Yorkstown Heights, NY
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