World Vision and Islamic Community Partnership helps families to nurture traditional values and faith practices to support modern family life

An initiative between World Vision and the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina is raising awareness about support that can be offered to Muslim families facing challenges in their daily modern lives through their faith.

The ‘Strength of the family’ project was created through a World Vision and Islamic Community partnership in Bosnia and Herzegovina to address the issues that specifically Muslim families are facing in everyday life. In addition to raising awareness about the challenges, the project will also support families in nurturing positive Islamic traditional practices and values, as well as create safe and loving environments to secure the well-being and protection of all family members, especially children.

In March 2017 workshop, participants theologians and imams, professors and students, husbands and wives, married and single people, young and old gathered to take this first step in testing the methodology from the ‘Strength of the family’ project which was adapted and developed by Field experts from the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tested model will then be shared with families in all congregations of the Mufti Unit of Sarajevo territory.  

‘This country is marked by the typical mentality in which it views problems with the family as a kind of defeat. The society sees these sorts of problems as weakness. I think this attitude makes it harder for marriages with problems to be preserved and healed’, says Abdulkerim Damir Mirković, one participant. ‘We need more communication, less exclusion. The workshop itself is encouraging and positive and has fulfilled my expectations’, he added

“Faith communities are our partners of choice and we see them as key partners in achieving our strategic goals of child protection and education. We plan to extend this project beyond the Mufti Unit of Sarajevo, and share it with every congregation in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the next few years” says Nikica Lubura Reljić, Faith in Development Lead in World Vision Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There were insightful contributions and comments from many participants including one who shared that in the 30 years he had worked with families, no one had ever come to ask for advice before the troubles in the family started.

‘I believe the biggest problem the family is facing, as an institution, as basic cell of every society, is alienation’ says Ahmet Tabaković, a participating student adding that he learned many practical things at the workshop, especially from his older colleagues who already have families. ‘The members of the family slowly become alienated from each other, the thread that connects the family is slowly being lost and, in my opinion that is the biggest problem of families today. As a young person who wants to start a family, this knowledge means a lot to me’.

Nermina Baljević, Sulejman ef. Čeliković, Mustafa Hasani, Abdulgafar Velić and Sabrija Mehmedović are field experts from the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina that worked on the adaptation and Development of methodology for the project ‘Strength of the Family’.