“If I want something to change, I first change myself, so I can inspire others to do the same. Persistence is my mode of operating.” This is the motto of 32-year-old Irma Zerdo from Visoko, a woman with a passion for nature and mountain climbing.  Irma decided to turn one of her passions into a business – growing and harvesting medicinal plants became “Cvetak”. Her best friend Edin Islamović offered her support, and Irma set off on her adventure. On one dunam of land, they grow mint, melissa, calendula, artemisia and aronia, and what they can’t grow they collect from mountains across BiH, from pure and untouched nature.

Read more here.

Have you ever held an axe, a hoe or a shovel and wondered who makes them? Have you ever thought that maybe the handle you are gripping was made by a woman with dark curly hair and red nail polish on her nails?

Have you ever heard of Dragana, the tool hadle artisan? Dragana doesn't live in the center of any city. She doesn't live near malls, and her children walk miles to get to school.

She lives in a little village near Prijedor, and if you want to get to her house you have to walk for miles or drive down an unpaved country road. But, this is hardly unusual. Dragana Stojinić isn't the only woman living in the countryside, but she is the only woman who makes wooden tool handles.  She started making handles when she lost everything. She and her husband were unemployed, with two children to raise.

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Getting up at the crack of dawn, going to sleep late at night, protecting from wind and rain the only thing that can provide you with a livelihood for the next few months – this is what Vesna Budnjar’s days looked like. Vesna is a mother of two who lives in Kalinovik, some 60 km away from Sarajevo, but she says she often feels that she and her neighbors have been completely forgotten by everyone. For years now, she has been picking forest fruit, drying and then selling them. She picks cepes and rosehips, dries and sells them to make money to support her family.  

She used to be at the mercy of the elements. Rain and wind reduced the quality of her products and made the drying process slower. She dried the fruit on improvised dryers, on meadows in the sun. She didn’t make much because she couldn’t offer high quality products. With every rain Vesna struggled to save her hard work, to get the fruit inside so all her effort wouldn’t be in vain.

Then she saw a great opportunity. USAID’s Fund for supporting businesses owned by marginalized women and the Municipality of Kalinovik decided to help women pushed to the margins of society, and Vesna took advantage of this opportunity and her potential by applying to receive funds.

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Cakes and pastries have been Silvana’s passion since early childhood. When she was still a little girl, she would sneak up, take some dough from her mother and make it into all kinds of shapes. This in now a memory of a mother of four. Silvana Vidović lives in Livno and is a person with disabilities. She is also an inspiration in so many different ways: her passion for baking, her courage to be a mother of four in BiH and her determination to forge ahead.

Silvana may have an 80% disability rating, but her love of life and will to overcome obstacles is nothing short of 100%. She says she had some difficult times in her life. Her husband’s salary was their only source of income, and she had six mouths to feed, four children to buy clothes for and put through school. Due to her disability, Silvana couldn’t find a job, and her health issues would have made it difficult for her to handle the demands made on a person working full time every day. But she had to find a solution, and she did! Silvana turned her childhood passion into a business, and this family home is now permeated with the delicious smell of baked goods.

Read more here.