Bosnia and Herzegovina

God is With Us

Maintaining peace and democracy in Bosnia is extremely complicated in the aftermath of the war in the early 90s that divided people along ethnic and religious lines. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the church with historical roots in Bosnia and it is seeks to convey Christian spiritual truths to the next generation.

Early religious instruction for children has proven to be one of the most powerful predictors of a lifelong Christian faith.

Bible Competition by Jovanka Imamovic | Christ to the Children Project Coordinator

“We went to Pale and visited two classes where children are preparing for this big…knowledge competition where they will be answering questions from books “Our life with God” and “God is with us”. There were 16 children in one of the classes and their teacher Aleksandra. “This is a very difficult task for me. Out of 32 children I need to select only two for representing this school in the diocese competition in Sokolac.”

Children couldn’t hide their excitement for this competition and they all wanted to be the best. We waited until they finished their tests and they looked very busy and quiet while they were answering their test questions.

After Aleksandra collected the tests they suddenly became noisy and started discussion about questions and answers. There were even some tears when one of the girls realized that she put the wrong answer and lost her chance to continue the competition. I tried to comfort her. I asked her name and told her that this was just the first but not the only competition. “But that is why it was so important for me”, Sanja sobbed through the tears.

I asked Aleksandra to show me Sanja’s test. One of the questions was: “What do we celebrate on Easter?” Sanja’s answer to this question was: ”This is the greatest Christian holiday. We celebrate coloured eggs.” I hardly controlled myself not to laugh, but as Sanja already shared this answer with her classmates the whole class started to laugh.

When they calmed I asked Sanja why did she put this answer and she replied that she couldn’t wait for Easter and coloured eggs but as she wanted to finished her test so quickly she put down the first what came to her mind. She said that she knows that we celebrate resurrection of Christ but she was writing too fast to think about it.

After class we were talking for a while with Aleksandra. She told us that all children in school were very excited about the competition and wanted to give their best. She also mentioned that children enjoy learning from books “God is with us” and “Our life with God” and she prays for us to continue with printing these books.”

Reviews from the Field

“There is a need to focus on Christian education not as an educational subject, in public schools, but as a confessional subject, in Sunday schools. In schools, the events from the Bible are told in historical manner, therefore remaining “flat” and not sufficient to rekindle Faith. There is a need to draw children, very precious part of Body of Christ, to the church where they can learn to exercise commitment to their personal growth with Christ. Moreover, in the ethnically divided context of Bosnia, including denominationally-based Christian education in public schools is problematic due to the risk of encouraging exclusion of ethnic minority children. The project has therefore worked with the Church to encourage the revival of Sunday Schools.”

Jasmina Varupa | Zonal Manager | Christian Commitment Coordinator | World Vision Bosnia and Herzegovina

Project Development

Our primary objectives in Bosnia and Herzegovina are:
1. To help train and mentor Christian leaders across Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2. To develop culturally relevant, age appropriate children’s Bible lessons for young people ages 2-18.
3. To print and distribute needed curriculum and teacher’s materials to the Orthodox Church.

Curriculum Development and Usage

Age 8 | 5,000 each of student books of Vol 1 and 2 + 300 Teacher’s manuals
Age 12 | 5,000 each of student books of Vol 1 and 2 + 300 Teacher’s manuals
Age 14 | Translation and contextualization of student books and Teacher’s manual is in progress

The books are distributed to representatives from all five dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and have been enthusiastically received and in use by children and teachers and by many parents, too.

he Orthodox priests in Bosnia share the lessons and materials, with their counterparts in Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo, opening up a very natural progression. Some 40 books of each volume were sent to the priests in Kosovo and Metohije with instructions how to use these books.

Approximately 15,000 children are using the curriculum, meeting two times a week to study. The average number of students per classroom is 25-30.

Teacher Training

32 teachers have been trained, but app. 300 teachers are using the curriculum.

Country Information

Full name | Bosnia and Hercegovina
Capital | Sarajevo
Major languages | Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian
GNI per capita | US $2,440 (World Bank, 2006)
Population | 4,552,198 (July 2007 est.)

Children under 14 years
15.5% of the population (male 359,739/female 336,978)

Religious Breakdown
Muslim 40%
Orthodox 31%
Roman Catholic 15%
Other 14%