A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

AP's Work with BOSFAM

The Advocacy Project has supported BOSFAM's work since July 2000, when consultant Peter Lippman profiled the efforts of refugees to return to villages near the town. Since then, AP has helped BOSFAM to design its website, raised over $15,000 for the weavers, and organized events in the United States.



Past Kilim exhibits in the United States

Kilims are woven rugs that originated in the Middle East and Balkan regions. Traditional kilims often share Islamic influences and have been dated as far back as the 5th century BC. The weaving skills were spread through various areas by the nomadic tribes that inhabited the regions at the time. Kilims are generally classified by their country or region of origin. Kilim designs are influenced by cultural, religious and environmental factors that differ from region to region.

Kilims can be woven in any combination of colors, design, and size, depending on the weaver’s or buyer’s preference. The rugs are woven by hand on wooden vertical looms and have the same design on both sides, allowing the rug to be turned over. The kilims woven by the women of BOSFAM are 100 percent wool and have the durability to last decades. (Source: Kilims: A buyers Guide by Lee Allane, copyright 1995) 

Weaver Zifa Bumbulovic tells her story.

BOSFAM’s kilims are all hand made by individual weavers who were expelled from their homes. Every carpet thus tells a story of grief, perseverance, and recovery.

Over the past three years, The Advocacy Project has used BOSFAM’s kilims to tell the story of Srebrenica, and of BOSFAM, to an American public. In 2003, AP purchased about twenty kilims, brought them back to the United States, and showed them at a gallery in Baltimore. AP staff used the exhibition to launch an AP Film ‘Weavers for Hope’ about BOSFAM’s work.

Hajra Dodzic’s dedication to her craft

AP organized two more exhibitions in Boston and Washington. The three events together generated over $6,500 in carpet orders for BOSFAM, attracted hundreds of visitors, and generated considerable press coverage.

In spite of their success, these three events were notable for the absence of any BOSFAM weavers. AP is inviting Beba Hadzic and Magbula Divovic to Washington at the end of June, in partnership with the Boell Foundation, and planning a series of events around their visit.

Baltimore, MD: July 2003

The Advocacy Project organized its first exhibit of Bosnian kilims at the H. Lewis Gallery in Baltimore with the generous support of the gallery owner. Displayed over two consecutive weekends, the exhibit of about 15 pre-selected kilims attracted over 200 visitors. It was structured around the anniversary of the massacre (July 11) and received coverage in The Baltimore Sun.

Boston, MA: November 19, 2003 – January 2, 2004

The Advocacy Project and the Center for Balkan Development (formerly Friends of Bosnia) held a 45-day standing exhibit at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. Free and open to the public, the exhibit attracted many scholars, students, and other sympathizers to the cause. Some visitors traveled from as far away as Wisconsin and upstate New York to see the kilims. The exhibition also attracted a group of Bosnian weavers living in Cambridge. The Boston Globe newspaper featured a long story about the exhibit in their Living/Arts section.

Washington, DC: April 1, 2004

This event attracted more than a hundred visitors on a single night, including NGO workers and government officials who had worked in Bosnia during or after the war, representatives of the Bosnian Diaspora community in DC and the diplomatic community. The Bosnian service of Voice of America filmed the event, and the program was watched live by BOSFAM members in Tuzla and Srebrenica.

Fellows (known in the past as interns) play an important part in AP’s support for BOSFAM. Marta Schaaf, from Columbia University, spent the summer of 2003 with BOSFAM. The 2004 intern, Pia Schneider, from the Business School at Georgetown University, helped BOSFAM orientate their website more towards marketing. Pia learned Bosnian during her stay, and has since returned twice to visit BOSFAM.

In 2005, AP is sent two interns – MacKenzie Frady, from the Georgetown Business School, and Chiara Zerunian from Edinburgh University – to work with Beba Hadzic and the others at BOSFAM. They helped advise BOSFAM on the marketing of kilims, and supported them during the 10th anniversary commemorations.

	From the 2005 blogs of MacKenzie Frady: "The odd thing is, as I walk around the town, I have no idea who is what race or religion. There are no distinguishing characteristics, no sign that marks one as Croat vs. Serb vs. Muslim. Just your name…Something as chance as your birth and your name determined your life or death here for a period of years."
	From the 2004 blogs of Pia Schneider: Zifa lived in Peæ near Srebrencia until it fell. She then had to flee to Tuzla; her husband and son managed to avoid the massacre and fled through the woods. Her husband made it but her son never did. He is still missing to this day. She always has a smile for me and asks me daily if I slept alright.
	From the 2003 blogs of Martha Schaaf: My work in the upstairs office at BOSFAM is occasionally interrupted by the regular banging of carpet looms downstairs...The women take two coffee breaks per day, and during each break, they sit around a table, lean on each other, and talk, sometimes all at once. It is usually cacophony, but it may die down a bit when one of the women is having her coffee grounds read by another and the predictions are getting juicy.