• HOME 
• FOUNDATION 
• PROJECTS 
• METHODS 
• YOUR HELP 
• CONTACTS 

• IDEA 
• HISTORY 

• LOKALNI JEZIK 

HISTORY

Wings of Hope Foundation was founded in Waassenaar/Netherlands in 1994. Afterwards, offices in Munich/Germany and Sarajevo/Bosnia and Herzegovina were opened. The presence of "Wings of Hope" organisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina started during the first months of 1995 through different forms of help to the citizens of the capitol Sarajevo. Children became the major victims of the war insanity. Their childhood was interrupted, schools were closed or were maintained as a mere imitation of the educational system. Till the end of war, in Sarajevo only, more than sixteen hundred children aged 0 to 16 were killed.

In the general jeopardy it was most difficult for children that lost the care of their parents, who were deserted and alone, distracted in their psychological development and who found shelter in the remnants of two institutions: Children's' home "Bjelave" (orphans) and in the Institute for special upbringing and education "Mjedenica" (children with developmental difficulties). One of the first projects of the Wings of Hope Foundation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was to renew these two institutions.

First programs of psychosocial aid were started in 1996 in kindergartens, elementary schools /Reintegration of pupils-returnees to the school system/ and work with the young ones/reconciliation through detraumatisation/. Within the project "Reintegration of pupils-returnees into the school system" an elementary school was rebuilt in the village RizvanoviĆi near Prijedor.

In the year 2000 Wings of Hope starts the intensive program of work with severely traumatised children in elementary schools in Banja Luka, Mostar, Sarajevo and Tuzla. Through the youth program "Reconciliation through detraumatisation" work with this population is intensified and in the year 2002 the first international peace-educational summer cam on the mountain Bjelašnica is started with 250 participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, that has already become a traditional summer activity. Continuous education of its own employees and psychologists, pedagogues, neuropsychiatrists from the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina in the field of therapeutic work with war-traumatised children and youth is the most important part of the Foundation's work.

In the end of 2003 in Sarajevo, the Wings of Hope Centre for psychosocial aid to children and youth was opened.

In 2004 the Wings of Hope Foundation celebrates ten years of existence and successful work. In March 2004 the Sarajevo office was transformed into the Bosnian Foundation for aid to victims of war "Krila Nade/Wings of Hope"

In the past ten years the programs of the Wings of Hope Foundation in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been of use to approximately 17.000 users, employed about 700 implementers and have been conducted in over 60 kindergartens, elementary and high schools and local NGOs.