Vocational training & economic empowerment
Twelve-week cycles in embroidery, knitwear, tailoring, preserves and culinary heritage, followed by six months of business mentoring.
Registered women’s association · Tešanj, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Every woman deserves her own income, her own voice, her own place at the table.
Udruženje žena „Ustikolina“ has worked alongside rural and small-town women in central Bosnia since 2009 — teaching a trade, opening a market stall, sitting with a neighbour through a hard winter, and keeping the embroidery of our grandmothers alive.
Our work in numbers
- women trained in economic initiatives
- 1,480women trained in economic initiatives
- community workshops held
- 612community workshops held
- families supported
- 2,300+families supported
- local artisan projects launched
- 38local artisan projects launched
Figures cover the period 2009 – 2025 and are reconciled with our annual stewardship report.
Our mission
Practical support, delivered by women who live here
We are not a project office that arrives, distributes leaflets and leaves. Our board members shop at the same market, send children to the same schools, and know which household lost its income this month. That closeness shapes everything we do: small groups, long relationships, and skills that turn into money a family can actually count on.
- Free vocational training in handcraft, tailoring, food processing and digital sales
- Micro-enterprise mentoring, bookkeeping support and access to municipal market space
- Preventive health seminars with local doctors and nurses
- Confidential psychosocial counselling and referral to legal aid
Programmes
Four pillars, one community
Women’s health & wellness
Screening awareness, reproductive health, menopause and mental well-being seminars held in village halls where clinics are far away.
Social support & counselling
A quiet room, a trained listener, and practical help with documents, benefits and safe referral for women facing violence or isolation.
Heritage & intergenerational work
Girls learn čilim weaving, cross-stitch and traditional cooking from women three generations older — and pay for their books doing it.
Artisan workshop
Craft that pays the electricity bill
Our workshop on Kralja Tvrtka produces hand-embroidered linens, woollen socks, čilim cushions and seasonal preserves. Every item carries the name of the woman who made it, and 70% of the sale price goes directly to her. The remainder buys thread, wool, jars and the fuel that brings women in from the villages.
Order from the workshopVoices from the community
What changed, in their words
„I came to the sewing course because my husband was ill and there was no money for winter wood. Two years later I have eleven regular customers and my daughter does not have to leave for Germany.“
„The health seminar was the first time anyone explained the screening programme to us in plain language. Three women in our village went for examinations the following month. One of them found it early.“
„My grandmother taught me the stitch her grandmother used. Now I sell what I make at the Saturday market and I am nineteen years old with my own bank account.“
Recent news
From the association
May 2026
Spring artisan market draws record turnout in Tešanj
Twenty-eight women from six local communities sold at the association’s spring market, with total earnings of 14,820 KM returned directly to producers.
March 2026
New counselling hours introduced on Wednesdays
Following demand from participants, confidential counselling is now available every Wednesday from 10:00 to 15:00, with a licensed psychologist present twice a month.
January 2026
2025 stewardship report published
Our annual financial and programme report is available for download, including a breakdown of every donation received and how it was spent.
There is a place here for you
Whether you can give an hour a week, a bag of wool, a professional skill or a monthly standing order — it becomes something concrete in the hands of a woman in this municipality.