Registered non-profit association — MPBK: RI12015 — Tešanj, Bosnia & Herzegovina
+387 61 063 848About us
Udruženje žena „Ustikolina“ was founded in 2009 in Tešanj by fourteen women who had spent the post-war decade holding households together without recognition, income or institutional support.
The association takes its name from Ustikolina, the settlement on the Drina that several founding members were displaced from in the 1990s. Carrying that name was a deliberate choice: it marks both what was lost and the insistence that women who rebuild a life somewhere new are not guests in their own community.
The first activity, in October 2009, was a knitting circle in a borrowed room above a bakery. Eleven women attended. By spring the circle had become a course, the course produced sellable goods, and the goods produced the first independent income several of those women had ever held in their own name.
Over the following years the work widened because the women asked for it to widen. If a participant could not read a contract, we found a lawyer. If she was avoiding the doctor, we brought the doctor to the village hall. If she had nowhere safe to talk, we found a room and a trained listener. The association grew by responding, not by planning in the abstract.
Today we operate from Kralja Tvrtka 36 in Tešanj, with programme activity across the municipality and partner groups in neighbouring communities. We remain small, deliberately: our strength is that participants are known by name, and their progress is followed for years rather than for the length of a grant cycle.
Registered office: Kralja Tvrtka 36, Tešanj 74260, Bosnia & Herzegovina
To strengthen the social, economic and health standing of women in Bosnia & Herzegovina through vocational training, income generation, preventive health education, social support and the preservation of traditional craft knowledge — with particular attention to rural women, older women, single mothers and women without formal employment.
A Bosnia & Herzegovina in which a woman’s place of birth, age or household circumstances do not determine whether she can earn, decide, seek care, or be heard — and in which the craft knowledge carried by our grandmothers is treated as a living economy, not a museum exhibit.
Equal standing is not a slogan on a poster but a practice: equal pay for equal craft, equal voice in the assembly, equal access to every programme we run.
We measure success in income a woman controls herself, not in the number of workshops attended. Training that does not end in earnings is training we redesign.
Bosnian embroidery, ćilim weaving, wool work and culinary tradition are skills with market value. Preserving them and paying for them are the same act.
Nobody is asked to prove hardship to be treated with dignity. Confidentiality is absolute, and help is offered before it is requested where we can see it is needed.
Every donation is recorded, every annual report is published, and any member or donor may inspect our books on request at the registered office.
The association is registered as a non-profit citizens’ association in accordance with the Law on Associations and Foundations of Bosnia & Herzegovina and is entered in the competent register under identification number MPBK: RI12015. Our statute defines the following bodies:
The highest body of the association. It convenes at least once per year, adopts the statute and any amendments, approves the annual financial and programme report, sets strategic priorities and elects the Management Board and Supervisory Board for four-year mandates. Every registered member holds one vote.
Five elected members responsible for governance between assemblies: approving the annual budget and work plan, overseeing programme delivery, adopting internal policies including safeguarding and procurement, and appointing the Executive Director. The board serves voluntarily and receives no remuneration.
Chairs the Management Board, represents the association before institutions, donors and partners, and is legally responsible for acts undertaken on behalf of the association together with the Executive Director.
Responsible for day-to-day operations: staff and volunteer coordination, programme implementation, donor reporting, bookkeeping oversight and correspondence. Reports monthly to the Management Board.
Three members, independent of the Management Board, who review financial records, verify that funds were spent in line with their stated purpose, and report their findings directly to the Assembly. They may request an external audit at any time.
Each of the four programme pillars has a coordinator who is accountable for participant records, attendance, outcome tracking and the safeguarding standards applied in her area of work.
