Mostar

When we decided to have a second group of volunteers for the summer, we decided on the historically rich city of Mostar, in Hercegovina.  So, in 2003 and 2004, members of our group collaborated with a mixed group of local college students (Moslem and Catholic).  Everyone worked on the restoration of the sixteenth-century Karađoz-beg mosque and worked with local architects and reconstruction teams to assist in a modest way to help prepare the reopening of Mostar’s reconstructed Old Bridge (Stari Most) on 23 July 2004. 

With the reconstruction of historic sites largely done by the time we planned our return in 2005, we turned our attention to help rebuild the community.  Mostar remains a divided city, and in addition to helping foster a spirit of cooperation and teamwork, we sponsored some discussions between the people of Bosnia and worked with or team of local students to rebuild relations between the two universities.

Summer of 2005 saw our Mostar group plan and help refurbish a physical space for a Student Information Center, which would  cater to the two universities in Mostar: the Croatian “Sveučilište u Mostaru” and the largely Bosniak “Džemal Bijedić Univerzitet.”  Despite cooperation with local United Nations authorities and other NGO's, we could not convince the Croatian university administration to cooperate officially on this project.  Džemal Bijedić Univerzitet sponsored the building and we worked our compatriots—Graditelji Mira—to develop a working relationship between the students with a place to study and have fun.  Despite falling short on our end goals, we did make the final product available to students on both sides of the Neretva River.

 

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Images of our work in Mostar

Group of Mostar volunteers together with visiting Americans.
Interior of Karađoz-beg mosque
Karađoz-beg mosque in Mostar	Planning for the Student Information Center, 2005
Renovation on the grounds of the Karađoz-beg mosque.