I am one week away from leaving for Tuzla, Bosnia. Wow, was time meant to move this quickly? When I get to Bosnia, I will be working for The Advocacy Project’s (AP) partner organization, the Landmine Survivors Network (LSN). While the LSN office in Washington D.C. will transform into Survivor Corps, the LSN in Bosnia (LSN BiH) will register as a local NGO by the end of this year. Survivor Corps has now broadened its mission to assist and empower not only landmine survivors, but all victims of war and violence.

I’m very excited about being involved in LSN BiH’s transition to a local NGO. This requires implementing the AP model of using ICT as a tool for advancing social justice and human rights. The LSN BiH has played a phenomenal role in reintegrating landmine survivors back into society. In fact, it was “created by and for survivors to empower individuals, families and communities affected by landmines to recover from trauma, reclaim their lives, and fulfill their rights.”

The LSN BiH uses a comprehensive and integrated survivor oriented approach to assist disabled war survivors. This approach addresses three crucial components: health (providing peer counseling and trauma recovery services), opportunity (promoting economic independence), and rights (using human rights education to inform and empower disabled war survivors). Furthermore, the LSN in BiH played a significant role in international advocacy efforts. It was an active participant in drafting the landmark U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Now that I am leaving for Tuzla, how have I prepared for my trip you ask? To be honest, I have not read much about Bosnia’s history or politics. These issues are deeply entrenched in my personal history and upbringing. I was in junior high school when the Balkan wars raged in Europe. My family and I watched all the bloodshed from our living room TV, just as the rest of the U.S. and the “international community” did.

Christiane Amanpour and other war correspondents implanted themselves in a burning inferno to inform America about Bosnia’s wretched fate. I used to sit comfortably in my Ottoman couch, sipping on Cinnamon Apple tea until I became completely uncomfortable and agitated. The sight of the dead and wounded bodies strewn across a blood filled and sniper rattled market in Sarajevo — it was just another usual day for me in New York and another usual day of terror for Bosnians.

My Albanian parents frequently asked me to translate the news for them. They knew that the war in Bosnia had an impact on Montenegro and Kosovo, where many of my relatives lived. And so while the UN proclaimed “safe havens” such as Gorazde, Zepa, and Srebrenica fell and burned to the ground, Kosovo was ensnared in its own serious ethnic, economic and political unrest.

My personal ties to the region allowed me to view Balkan political developments in a double perspective that never sees things in isolation. It also permitted me to see and learn about other human rights situations and political affairs in a comparative context. Growing up in a political environment dramatically affected my consciousness as well, enough so that I was overcome with “compassion fatigue” for a people and a nation that the world betrayed, misled, ignored, and simply did not care about. The term “political will” became another word to add onto my list of misnomers, right after the “international community”.

Rather than revisit my Noel Malcolm book entitled “Bosnia: A Short History”, I chose to do something different for my preparation. Instead, I have spent time engaging in the following activities: trying to perfect the art of Bosnian coffee making; dancing the Kolo (a type of folk dance) just as well and fast as my Bosnian friends (this is a major undertaking I might add!); making wonderful new friends in the Bosnian NYC Diaspora; fine-tuning my Bosnian language skills; and downloading my favorite old Yugoslavian songs onto my IPOD. Last week, I also read many interesting articles about major advancements in prosthetic technology.

Well, thank you all for reading my post! Bosnia has called my name and I have answered the call. Here I come Tuzla!