She confirms that this is a project that has outgrown the scope of an individual humanitarian initiative and has become an issue of general social importance.
However, it is important to remember that this story did not start today.
Its foundations were laid much earlier thanks to the joint vision of the Association “Heart for Children with Cancer” and the Waqf Directorate of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was a vision based on a simple but deeply humane belief that families of children struggling with a serious illness must not be left alone.
For years, the association recognized the needs of sick children and their families, while the Foundation Directorate recognized in that project something that was an integral part of the foundation’s mission from the very beginning, serving the community and providing support to those who need it most.
Vakufs throughout their history were not created for their own sake. They were created to meet the needs of society. Schools, hospitals, inns, public kitchens, bridges, waterworks and numerous other institutions were built from the waqf, which served all people regardless of their affiliation.
The essence of the waqf has always been to recognize a social need and offer a permanent solution.
This is precisely why the support for the parents’ houses project did not represent a departure from the waqf mission, but rather its natural continuation in contemporary circumstances.
If in the past waqfs built institutions for treatment, education and social protection, then parental homes are just a modern expression of the same idea, that society must show care for the most vulnerable members of the community.
Today, when the Government of the Federation of BiH is considering models of long-term financing, it can be said that one idea has seen its full affirmation. What started as a vision of the Association and the Vakuf Directorate has become an issue recognized by government institutions as well. It is the best confirmation that those who believed in this project were on the right track.
That’s why this was not just administrative or financial news, but a confirmation that persistence, responsibility and a clear understanding of social needs can initiate processes that eventually oblige the state to take part of the responsibility.
And this is precisely what, over the centuries, has been one of the most important roles of waqfs – to recognize a need before others and to pave the way for lasting social solutions through their actions, he writes. Bosnia Info.
