From June 20th-27th, twenty young people from around Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) joined together to spend a week in Tuzla as part of the project Invasion of Love whose purpose was to share messages of love and perform different acts of kindness.
In the past, this part of the Balkan Peninsula has experienced many types of invasions that divided people and communities. ADRA volunteers decided on a different kind of invasion where they wanted to demonstrate how showing love and doing random acts of kindness can bring people together. It also expressed what kind of future the young people want for their country.
The group of twenty youth arrived in Tuzla on Sunday, June 20th to tour the city and make the preparations for the following five days of activities. They started by visiting the Accident and Emergency Unit, the Fire Department, the Communal Services, and the local police station, bringing along boxes filled with different types of goodies to express their gratitude for the dedicated service they give for citizens everyday. As per their custom, the volunteers also delivered six packages of humanitarian aid to six socially endangered families. That first day also saw them cleaning windshields at parking lots and leaving the following message on the cars: ‘We saw that your windshield was a bit dirty, so we decided to wash it and expand your view.’
Among other things, the young people offered cold drinks to passers-by in different locations and gave away flowers to ladies working in different areas - from bakeries to banks. The group also collected more than 50 bags of trash in the town’s picnic area and brought surprised smiles to the passers-by.
As part of a health initiative, a Health Bazaar was set up in the largest shopping center offering free massages, blood pressure checks, oxygen level checks, blood sugar level checks, and weight testing, as well as two survey tests to find out the biological age of people’s bodies and evaluate their lifestyle.
One morning was solely dedicated to motivating Tuzla citizens to give up smoking by giving them an apple in exchange for a cigarette, whereas in the afternoon they invited people to bring their cars for a free car wash at the Seventh-day Adventist church parking lot. One of those who came for a carwash was a local librarian who had heard in the media about the various activities ADRA volunteers were doing and she asked if she could take a picture with them to post on the library’s Facebook page.
“On the last day, we created a big ‘Invasion of love’ flag and we walked through the city with it and hung it on one of the town’s overpasses. During that time, we were greeted by the honks of hundreds of cars,” explains Božidar Mihajlović, ADRA BiH Country Director.
“After five days of serving the needs of the people and showing God’s love, we have not stopped receiving messages of support from Tuzla citizens as well as inquiries of how they could join our organization,” concludes Mihajlović.
‘Invasions of love’ are annual camps that aim to bring down walls among people and communities and help establish not only tolerance but true unity among people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
To learn more about the projects of ADRA BiH, visit their website or their Facebook page where you can also see more photos from this year’s ‘Invasion of love’.
This article was originally published on the Trans-European Division’s news site