ANA ELENA
BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA
22 YEARS
"I know it’s a cliché,
but if we don’t do it,
no one will do it for us.
This country and this society
have been damaged enough,
it’s on us, the younger generation,
to do something about it."
It is not always strangers who frighten us the most — sometimes it is the people closest to us. Ana Elena knows some residents in her hometown of Pale that have not been to Sarajevo in years. Although it is only a 15-minute drive, to them it is worlds apart. It’s those individuals who don’t want to engage with their own neighbours, those who still carry the fragments of the war inside their systems, who are still hurting, that causes her concern, because if something is not healed, it carries the risk to flare up again.
Ana Elena is aware of her luck that despite growing up in a post-conflict war society, she was privileged to be raised in a nurturing family environment. She has friends in all the main three ethnic groups that live in Sarajevo. To all of them “it’s not where you come from, or who you are, it’s if you are human or not.” They are not the only ones. Ana Elena is positive that the „generational awakening“ has already happened, and the young will claim their position in the future society.
Originally Ana Elena wanted to study art, but then Corona hit, and her plans were cancelled. She enrolled in the department of international relations and diplomacy instead. She dived into the unique mixture of economics, media, law, and diplomacy, until she realized that she could combine that with her love for the arts as well. Now she has found cultural management and cultural diplomacy to combine all her interests, strengths, and values in life.
Not too many young people have the same strong political will like Ana Elena. Some are too passive, some don’t want to engage at all, as they don’t identify with the current system as it is. They are influenced by the generation of their parents and grandparents, who had to endure the society’s fate and as a result are worn down by a war that nobody wants to talk about or to be reminded of.
At the same time this very system depends on the youth to bring about the necessary changes. Working with young people on a regular basis in a political context, Ana Lena does her part to change that. She is positive that her generation is the one who can actually break the melancholy and get into action.
The Berlin Process, in her eyes, is especially part of that positive change. Looking 10 years into the future Ana Elena is positive Bosnia and Herzegovina will have joined the EU or at least be at the very brink of it. For that to work, the region still needs to put in sufficient effort and requires patience, as she says.
When asked about her own future, Ana Elena sees herself to be a vocal point to connect people in a cultural context, especially those who had fewer possibilities than herself. To her it is the most beautiful and effective way of political peace building.
