5 September 2011 - In early morning hours of Saturday, 3rd September, activists from the Volunteers and Friends of Konjic launched the community mobilization project “More Beautiful Environment – More Comfortable Life” in partnership with and financial support of the UNV programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Culminating on September 20th, this project will focus on the beautification of children’s playground and surrounding wall in a residential area of Konjic, located about 50 kilometers south-west of Sarajevo. The main objective is to physically prepare and then paint the wall  in an artistic manner transforming the  currently dirty and graffiti-covered area into more beautiful play and leisure space for children and all other residents.

On Saturday, Konjic volunteers were joined by children from the neighbourhood.  Together, they scraped off old paint and grafittil and cleaned up the park from garbage, weeds and moss. “This wall which is truly spoiling the look of this street and our town, and which will be turned into [an object of] pride, and another success story for our volunteers group, is now ready for a beginning of construction works. I think that our day today was very successful, well planned and used time, result of which was great job and I hope we will continue like this,” was stated by Elvira Cosic, a volunteer in the project.

Organization of the entire project – from planning, purchasing of materials and works – is being carry out by the UN Volunteers programme and “Volunteers and friends from Konjic”, with a support of local art school “Zuko and Lazo” as well as local citizens.

UNV in BiH is organizing an annual gathering of all its volunteers engaged in different United Nations agencies. This event is, among others, used as an opportunity to join a local group or organization in an implementation of a project/initiative aiming to mobilize citizens to volunteer for benefit of entire community, and promote values of volunteers and volunteering.

“This year gathering will take place in Konjic, and considering outstanding reputation and the work of Konjic volunteers, they are one of our desired partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Elizabeth Siebenmann, the UNV Programme Officer for BiH. She added that about 40 UN Volunteers will join citizens of Konjic on 20th September to help complete all the works in the playground.

In addition to cleaning-up, volunteers from Konjic also set up a group which will write and design a publication promoting volunteering and activism, which is also financially supported by the UNV.

"We are really happy that the United Nations Volunteers follow our activities and give recognition to a number of concrete activities we have carried out for a benefit of our communities and our youngest citizens. We know how to and we do enable young people in our town to wake up and become a part of this positive Konjicstory. In May 2011, volunteers of our group took part in the implementation of the international project Biennale of Modern Art and now we are working on this project ‘More Beautiful Environment – More Comfortable Life’. This way, we are marking the European Year of Volunteerism and the 10th anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers here in Konjic too, and to our fullest capacities,” stated Adis Muhibic, the main coordinator of the informal group of citizens “Volunteers and Friends of Konjic”.

By: UNV.ba, "Volunteers and Friends of Konjic"