Vocational art therapies as psychosocial support to asylum-seeking women in BiH

Vocational art therapies and recreational group activities are part of the psychosocial programmes for vulnerable groups of asylum-seekers women provided by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, through a partnership with the Bosnia and Herzegovina Women’s Initiative (BHWI) in several reception centres in Sarajevo and Herzegovina-Neretva Canton in BiH.

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In those two cantons alone[i], close to 200 people, many of whom women and girls, await a resolution of their asylum claim with the relevant authorities and face long waiting times.

Burdened with traumas of displacement, an arduous journey and the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, women seeking safety need to find positive and creative outlets.

“Within our psychosocial activities, we aimed to provide the women the opportunity to gain more confidence and a sense of complacency through artistic creativity, thus making them forget the situation they are in, at least during the workshops.” – said Merima Nizic, UNHCR/BHWI Team Coordinator in TRCs in Sarajevo.

In the Temporary Reception Centre Ušivak, at the outskirts of the nation’s capital Sarajevo, UNHCRs partner BHWI organize creative workshops for small groups of women, ensuring safety and trust where women can be creative.

“We listen to their needs, and we then implement them in our activities. At our workshops, the atmosphere is always positive, accompanied by music from their region, which is why women are happy to participate in activities”, Merima Nizic concluded.

Artistic creativity is also implemented in several other psychosocial therapeutic, educational or leisure activities provided by other UN agencies and civil society actors working at the centre.

UNHCR/BHWI provides psychosocial assistance activities with the support of the European Union Service for Foreign Policy Instruments.

[i] 526 asylum-seekers and people awaiting registration of their asylum claim are known to UNHCR to be present in the country on the day of the publication of the article.

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