However, when it comes to our future plans, currently, they are focused on the period of July 2022/June 2023.
In this regard, one of the priorities of the i-diaspora is the establishment or registration of an organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina. If this idea were to be realized, which has been in our thoughts and aspirations for a long time, the i-diaspora would be able to apply for additional international grants from, for example, the European Commission, USAID, GIZ, SIDA, etc.
At the same time, the third phase of the project, in addition to the above, will be even more focused on local communities and direct work in the country. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that we are continuing the activities called "Local diaspora online meetup", which, for now, was organized in 6 cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The long-term goal is the organization of a local meetup in at least 10 cities, and, for now, the most likely is the continuation of the meetup in Stolac (where we realized one meetup), and the organization of the Mostar meetup.
Also, during this year we want to focus on obtaining funds for existing projects and general organizational support. We have been in contact with potential donors, and we believe that we will succeed in achieving our goal. Some of them are the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, local governments (self-governments), GIZ - German Development Agency, USAID, etc. We have already discussed possible support with some of them.
In addition, we continue with the "Diaspora Online Check-In" project, which we designed in cooperation with the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the pangea network from Germany. Thanks to this project, which we started in 2020, we have been continuously connecting diaspora organizations around the world for 18 months, and we are familiar with their daily activities from month to month. In this way, we connected our diaspora living in the United States of America, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and Norway, and networking is the primary goal of the i-diaspora.
Furthermore, in cooperation with SAJV, we are implementing the two-year project "We make democracy" 2.0, which focuses on cooperation between youth organizations from the Western Balkan region and Switzerland. In the end, we will create an interactive platform that organizations will use for further cooperation. The project is ongoing and will last until December 2022. So far, youth exchanges have been organized in several countries, and a total of 40 young people from 9 countries are participating in the project.
However, the realization of the project "We make democracy" 3.0 is already in the plan. Negotiations with SAJV are ongoing, and according to current prospects, the project will be launched at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year. The completion of the project should take place in 2025.
It is important to emphasize that, during the last phase of the project, we also successfully implemented the Collaboratio Balkanica exchange project, and i-diaspora, together with its partners, applied for additional funding for this project. In the next phase, participants from Collaboratio Balkanica will work on the finalization of the Catalyst Lab Western Balkans, and the request for financing the creation and implementation of this project has been sent to Movetia.
In the third phase of the project, we will try to gather around 100 children aged 12 to 16 from the diaspora and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of the IdentiCALL - Mapping Identites project, in cooperation with the Pestalozzi Foundation. In this way, we would form a children's camp, and the duration of the project is planned until the end of 2023.
The "Summer School in Stolac" project, implemented by i-diaspora and the "La Terra Nostra" Foundation, is also in the process. Central activities will be held in August next year.
Last year, we implemented the first part of the project "Engineers without Borders, Community of Social Housing Gradačac", and in the coming period we will work on the continuation of the project.
Finally, in the continuation of our work, we will also focus on B2B meetings with representatives of the IT sector and the metal industry. The partners in this project are SIPPO, SECO, Swisscontact, the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of Srpska. The project is in the process of implementation, and the final works are planned for June 2023.
Finally, it is important to add that in the past twelve months we have received several donations from donors and friends of the i-diaspora. For next year, we plan to be more active, and our CEO, together with the fundraiser, will hold B2B meetings with members of our network, in order to increase the number of donations.
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