Voices of Courage

Stana Avramovic, left, and Zejneba Sarajlic work side-by-side in the Women of Podrinje Association office in Bratunac. The two will receive Voices of Courage awards on May 15 in New York City. Photo: Mercy Corps Bosnia

Before May 1992, Zejneba Sarajlic and Stana Avramovic were mere acquaintances who occasionally greeted each other while shopping or passing on the street but whose age and ethnicity kept them apart.

Now, a decade later and after having their lives irrevocably altered by war, the two women from the town of Bratunac in Bosnia are nearly inseparable.

Sarajlic, 63, and Avramovic, 42, will be together in New York City next week where they will be honored with Voices of Courage awards from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children – an international organization dedicated to protecting and empowering women and children displaced by conflict.

The pair is being recognized for their work with the Women of Podrinje Association, an organization in Bratunac that is supported by Mercy Corps. The Women of Podrinje Association has become a central meeting place for people of different ethnic backgrounds that were separated and displaced by the war. It has played a vital role in the reconciliation process in an area where mistrust and anger still run high.

“Because of them, nothing is the same in Bratunac,” said Refik Begic, a municipality official. “These two women have torn apart the black hole of nationalism.”

In 1992, Bratunac became the scene of particularly brutal ethnic fighting. Serb forces moved into the area, burning non-Serb houses and expelling or killing Muslim Bosnians (Bosniaks). Sarajlic, a Bosniak, fled to Tuzla where she was to learn that her husband, whom she had been forced to leave behind in Bratunac, had been killed by Serb forces.

Living as a displaced person, Sarajlic began working to improve the lives of others displaced by the conflict. She became a founding member of the Women of Podrinje Association and helped to organize a meeting between Serbian and Bosniak women from Bratunac in 1996. It was at this meeting that Sarajlic and Avramovic, a Serb who was still living in Bratunac, were reunited and began their partnership for reconciliation.

A year ago the Women of Podrinje Association opened a new office in the center of Bratunac where Sarajlic and Avramovic work side-by-side trying to help others to overcome their differences and to rebuild their lives. The challenges remain great but with each passing day a sense of normality is returning to both Serbs and Bosniaks living in Bratunac.

“We have all seen our share of personal trauma and tragedy,” Sarajlic said. “No matter what, we will and must live together.”