 Brothers Damir and Edin Serdarevic have received UMCOR
assistance to help them rebuild their house and they have
both received income generation loans to enable them to start
small businesses.
The Serdarevic family rely on the incomes of Edin and
Damir as no other adult family member has a job or access
to a regular source of income.
Edin is married with two children and
his first grandchild on the way. He is a trained mechanic
and qualified to maintain and repair the agricultural
machines mainly used in the area. Before the war, he had a
large customer base so it was natural for him to utilize
his expertise and restart his old business on his return
to Crnici in Stolac Municipality in 2000. These days,
business is good and Edin has a full order book.
 Damir returned in 1998 from displacement in 2000. Both
he and Edin had been living in UNHCR temporary
accommodation in the North of Mostar. Damir is also a
trained mechanic but he also completed commercial school
and so has valuable business training. He used the funds
from his UMCOR loan to start egg production. He has built
a concrete barn to keep the chickens in. He claims the
chickens like to listen to music. He has about 960
chickens and they lay between 600 and 1200, depending on
the stage of the production cycle they are currently in.
At the moment, they lay about 900 and the cycle is
decreasing.
 The
Serdarevic brothers were part of a community group,
consiting of three families, which received irrigation
assistance from UMCOR during the severe drought of summer
2003. UMCOR contractors drilled a bore hole to a depth of
approximately 50 metres. The bore hole produces about 0.6
litres of irrigation water per second. Members of the
community group were trained to manage, maintain and
distribute the water effectively.
For the future, Damir hopes to expand into a barn which at the moment
requires repairs to the hole in the roof. He will be able
to keep a further 450 hens when this space has been
renovated.
Updated June 2004.
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