prijava
SARAJEVO, March 8 (FENA) - This year, the PRONI Center for Youth Development is implementing a project to promote and distribute a European Youth Card (EYCA) through which young people in BiH will be able to realize benefits and discounts across BiH and Europe.
Jasmin Jašarević, General Manager of the PRONI Center for Youth Development, told FENA that the issuing of that card should begin at the end of May after technical and other preparations are completed and the system is in place.
"This year, the realization of the European Youth Card project begins and we are the only organization in BiH authorized to distribute that card. We are currently working on designing a website, promotional materials and establishing contacts with business and public sector," said Jašarević.
The European Youth Card, he added, provides discounts at more than 70,000 locations and outlets in 38 European countries. The discounts can be used by six million users between the ages of 15 and 30, and now young people from BiH will also get this opportunity when traveling to Germany, Spain, Croatia, Montenegro for transportation, accommodation, concert tickets, theaters, museums, and other services.
"All young people are entitled to this card. We recently visited colleagues in Montenegro who have been running this program for two years, and they have excellent experience and about seven thousand users of this card," said Jašarević.
Speaking about current projects, Jašarević noted that the Proni Center for Youth Development has been working for 22 years on educating youth workers in Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka and Bijeljina through the USAID-funded Social Transformation and Reconciliation (STaR) program.
"We have enrolled the second-generation A-level training and currently have 30 young people attending it with the goal of becoming active citizens in these communities. This program is the most important thing we do and it lasts six months of theoretical training and two months of practical work. After successful training, young people organize their workshops in our youth clubs," Jašarević added.
It is a project that should help young people meet, get to know each other and send a message to the wider community about transformation and reconciliation.
"We are launching a similar project this month in ten municipalities in BiH with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through the BHRI initiative. Meaning that, ten more municipalities in BiH will have the opportunity to get a Proni Youth Club, youth workers, volunteers, programs for young people which Proni has been conducting for many years," said Jašarević, adding that they plan to open youth clubs in Kalesija, Zvornik, Bratunac, Zenica, Foča, Sokolac, Prijedor, Prnjavor, Višegrad, Cazin, Trebinje, Velika Kladuša...
One of the programs they are implementing refers to a contact point for the Erasmus + program that the Proni Center has been running since 2014. Jašarević reminded that this is the largest youth program in Europe, and that Proni organizes an info day, a training each year, and that they help young people and organizers to write projects and find partners for projects, as well as to participate themselves in a way that are partners in a dozen Erasmus + projects.
Jašarević noted that young people deserve and have the right to travel, explore and seek their opportunities, and we should also give an opportunity to organizations and projects that seek to help young people in BiH to develop their capacities and realize their potential.
"A more significant response from the authorities would be desirable in a way that, through their strategies, policies, budgets, and allocations for young people, they could respond to their needs in a more concrete manner," concluded Jašarević.
(FENA) S. R.
