SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina/GENEVA, 20 December 2007 (LWI) - Radmila and Petar Radonjic, both in their early fifties, run a small farm in Tomina village, northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is seven years since the couple returned to their village after five years of displacement in Banja Luka town, the country's second largest city. Their situation was similar to that of other Bosnians in the early 1990s - looted houses and stables, destroyed livestock, joblessness as industries shut down, failed infrastructure, and probably worst of all, fear of reprisals from former neighbors belonging to a different ethnic group.

"Living as displaced persons in Banja Luka, we always knew that we wanted to go back home - we didn't want to consider any other option!" remarks Radmila. "There was not a day that I did not express my desire to return," Petar recalls.

Through its large-scale agricultural income generation project, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) program in the Balkans region helped the family rebuild their lives by donating three greenhouses and a truck to transport farm produce to the market place and to private food industries.

"I did not know a thing about agriculture," admits Radmila, who like her husband, worked at a local textile company before the war broke out in 1992. Upon return, they produced only enough to cover their own needs. "Gradually I recognized the power and beauty of agriculture and I found myself planting vegetables even in flower pots all over my house," she recalls.

Thanks to regular advice from the LWF agronomists, many families like the Radonjics now sell their produce to the local supermarkets or at the open market. "Yes, we can live from what we sell at the market," confirms Petar.

Electricity

Today, the couple lives in a warm, well-lit house, hardly comparable to the living conditions two-and-a-half years ago. "It was real isolation, not being able to watch news and learn what was going on around us. On long summer days we could not store food for long because the refrigerator was not functioning, even worse, were the long cold winter nights when we had to go to sleep early in order to economize candles," quips Radmila.

Restoring electricity in Tomina village was one of the many infrastructural rehabilitation projects implemented through the DWS Balkans integrated returnee program in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

Radmila is enthusiastic about increasing her vegetable production, as is Petar about expanding the family's livestock, in order to provide for their children studying in Banja Luka. "There is a future for all people in our beloved Bosnia" irrespective of ethnic origin, the couple argues, citing peace, health and equal rights for all as basic ingredients for co-existence. "We are all human beings, other differences do not count," she asserts.

Fehima and Idriz Selimovic

Fehima and Idriz Selimovic, a Bosnian Muslim couple in their early thirties never lost hope despite the uncertainty they encountered. They fled their homes in Konjevic Polje, Bratunac and the Srebrenica region with their parents and hundreds of thousands of other civilians during the first military attacks on Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. Their first child was born in 1994 at the height of the Bosnian war. In Srebrenica, the town that suffered a large-scale military attack leading to deaths of thousands and a mass flight of the local population, the family had taken refuge in an abandoned house in Potocari village. The couple, their baby son and Idriz's parents fled again, this time to Gradacac, a small town in the northeast, a region that did not experience a major military confrontation.

"During those difficult times of deprivation, we never lost hope that we would go back home. The birth of our daughter and son was not an additional burden but an encouragement to go on with our lives and struggle for a new start."

Indeed the "new start" came when the family returned to Konjevic Polje in 1999. That there was no longer a house nor stables or livestock - just plain land - did not discourage them. A former neighbor accommodated them until 2003 when they heard about the LWF/DWS Balkans reconstruction project for returnees. The LWF assistance made it possible for the Selimovic family to move into their new house relatively quickly. The extra milk they got from a donated cow provided some income. Today, the couple owns four cows and two heifers.

Fehima and Idriz also spoke about relations with their Serb neighbors. "There is no collective responsibility for what happened in the war. I cannot blame all Serbs for setting my house on fire. It was an individual and I do not know who it was," adds Idriz.

Long-Term Intervention

Over the past 15 years, the LWF/DWS Balkans program has assisted over 20,000 families such as the Radonjics and Selimovics to return to their original homes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Recognizing that a reconstructed house does not guarantee survival, the LWF has provided further assistance in the form of agricultural income generation, rehabilitation of community infrastructure, capacity building, social development, and peace and reconciliation initiatives.

But the major challenge is reintegration within communities where the four-year long war drew significant division lines between the main ethnic groups - Bosnians, Serbs and Croats. The LWF incorporates an inclusive approach, ensuring the rights holders [community members] and the DWS national office staff comprise the different ethnic groups. In partnerships with donor agencies such as SIDA, FinnChurchAid, Church of Sweden, Germany's Church Development Service (EED), the Swiss Federation of Protestant Churches' aid agency HEKS, and members of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International - the global alliance of churches and their agencies responding to emergencies - the LWF regional program emphasizes local capacity building in order to minimize the rights holders' dependency on international assistance. Three agricultural projects in Bosnia and Kosovo are in the process of evolving into autonomous local non-governmental organizations.

Overall the LWF/DWS Balkans program plans to phase out its direct engagement in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as capacity developed over the years gradually allows transition from the international community management to local leadership. More attention will be directed toward Kosovo, where there is still great need for international assistance.

Indeed, the LWF has made a significant contribution to one of the most challenging tasks in southeast Europe - reconstruction and reconciliation