At the end of last year, the initiative "Construction of an adequate playground in front of the branch school in Babići" was launched. The story for the benefit of all children, present and future, was initiated by the Youth Association "Sijedi krš" from the Babići Local Community, which belongs to the town of Gračanica. Namely, for many years, children attending classes at that branch school have faced a number of problems caused by poor and dilapidated school infrastructure. As parents' main goal is to provide the best for their children, parents and members of the "Sijedi krš" Association joined forces and launched a commendable initiative. Because, besides physical education, building a school playground will provide the opportunity for various extracurricular activities, gatherings, and socializing of students outdoors, in nature. Today's students do not have all that, explains Amra Imamović, the mother of a girl attending school in Babići: "This problem has been going on for years. Our children attending the Babići Branch School do not have a gymnasium where they could have physical education classes, so they are forced to have classes outside the school on a playground that is not adequately equipped, which is not worthy of our children. Therefore, children are often forced to stay in the classroom, where in the end, they do not have a physical education class, but it turns into something else, usually art."

The moment they realized that no one was solving the problem or taking responsibility, emphasizes mother Amra, they decided to take the first step. They informed the public about the problem and asked for help from the Babići Local Community and the City of Gračanica.

The President of the Youth Association "Sijedi krš" Muharem Šehić recalls how the whole story began: "The long-standing problem of the school has often been the topic of various instances, but we, as the Youth Association, knew that this project requires significant funds and we never knew that we could be initiators in solving this problem. After the PRAGG team introduced us to the possibility of launching a campaign to solve some problems in our community, we firmly decided that it was an opportunity for this problem. We realized that a group of young people can be the driving force in solving the problems of our school, so we started further cooperation and efforts to carry out this project to the end, and through our campaign, we pushed the responsible authorities to solve the problems related to the school, specifically the school playground."

And they quickly realized that solutions to problems could be reached through joint efforts. Members of the "Sijedi krš" Association noticed a public call in the Babići Local Community for a Citizens' Assembly where projects proposed for the budget of the City of Gračanica would be discussed. "We immediately sent one of our team members to attend the Assembly and present our idea that a certain portion of the city budget should be allocated to school projects. However, other projects were a priority, and this project was supposedly to be the subject for some other funds," explains the President of the Association to us. However, after realizing that the proposal from the Babići Local Community would not be included, they decided to send an initiative to the City in the name of the "Sijedi krš" Association for the "Construction of an adequate playground in front of the branch school in Babići." "With our announcement, we encouraged and lobbied local councilors to include this problem in their initiatives, and as a result, we received additional funds in the budget for our school," explains Muharem Šehić.

Thus, the City of Gračanica allocated 26 thousand convertible marks from its budget for the year 2024 for the construction of the school playground, but it did not stop there because financial assistance began to arrive from various sources, which shows that the initiative bore fruit.

Support came from all sides and gave additional impetus to parents and members of the "Sijedi krš" Association, and Šehić adds: "Firstly, we talked to the president of the Babići Local Community and obtained approval for additional funds from the Local Community budget to address this problem, and we received positive reactions from all residents, who are even willing to financially help implement this project. Also, the support of local businessmen is noticeable."

However, the construction of the playground has not yet begun, and parents expect and believe that it will be completed by the end of the year. This will certainly bring about significant changes in the Babići Local Community. "Our youngest residents of Babići will have adequate conditions for physical education, conditions that are worthy of them. Then, after-school activities, where children will be able to play, socialize, and have fun, which is very important in today's times alongside all modern technologies," says Amra Imamović with conviction.

To achieve this, it is important to persist with the initiative, which is why the Association has already prepared the following activities for higher levels of government. Muharem Šehić acquaints us with them: "Actually, our mission is not only to attack but to make it known that this playground is for all children in the Babići Local Community and that all instances are responsible for the situation. After collecting the necessary analyzes, surveying the  population, and documenting it all, the next thing we are trying to do is to present all of this to the Ministry of Education of the Tuzla Canton. In the coming days, we will complete that documentation, send an official initiative for a meeting, and meet with the Minister of Education to completely neutralize the problems related to the school with joint efforts." After the construction of the playground, activists will continue with other activities they learned about through the survey. One of the activities will involve renovating the toilets, which are a big problem in the branch school, as well as the facade, which is in extremely poor condition. These are further goals of dedicated parents and members of the Association. By fighting for their youngest, activists have realized how valuable and important activism is. This realization also came to mother Amra Imamović, whose words conclude this story: "If certain problems cannot be solved by one person, institution, or a smaller group of people, then the problems begin to be solved by action, by a group of people, in this case, by the action of young people from the "Sijedi krš" who initiated the initiative. And so far, we have seen how important it is to be engaged in activism because the ideas conceived by our activists have begun to be implemented, thus showing the great significance and progress in this campaign."