For the third time, the Small Family Home in Ledići opened its doors to our dear friends from the Association for Persons with Special Needs of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton.

Although this was their third stay in Ledići, it was their first visit this year. They had hoped to come as early as April or May, during the spring gardening season, to help us prepare the garden and sow the first crops. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funds, we were unable to organize their stay at that time.

And they had been waiting for Ledići.

For almost a year, they had been talking about returning, asking when they would be able to come again and looking forward to the days they would spend in a house that, after their previous two stays, they had already begun to regard as their own.

We were particularly sorry that we could not welcome them earlier because most members of the Association come from rural communities around Goražde, while some are returnees living in Republika Srpska. Gardening, working the land and taking care of a household are part of their everyday lives, so their knowledge and experience would have been of great help to us in Ledići.

We hope that next year we will have enough funding to welcome them in the spring as well, so that together we can prepare the soil, sow seeds and plant the produce that children and other groups staying at the Home will enjoy throughout the summer.

This time – five days

When we were finally able to organize their visit this year, Belma Mujezinović, Director of Foundation Second, who manages the Small Family Home in Ledići, suggested that they stay a little longer this time.

They accepted the suggestion and decided to stay for five full days.

And if anyone thought they were going to spend those five days resting, they could not have been more mistaken.

Accustomed to working and to everyone contributing to the community according to their abilities, they quickly found plenty to do in Ledići.

On the first day, they tidied the yard and cleaned the house after the many groups that had stayed at the Small Family Home throughout the summer.

On the second day, it was time to work in the garden. They harvested the potatoes, tidied the garden and prepared it for winter.

On the third day, they picked up their paintbrushes. They painted the fence, the staircase and the gazebo, leaving a visible mark of their stay and helping us prepare the Home for the months ahead.

On the fourth day, they were no longer guests

The fourth day was special.

That day, our friends from Goražde were no longer guests of the Small Family Home.

They became the hosts.

Guests from the Pazarić Institution arrived in Ledići, while the members of the Association had been preparing lunch and a barbecue since early morning to welcome them properly.

There was cooking, preparing, setting tables and serving food, accompanied by conversations and laughter, and once again the house and yard were filled with people.

It is in moments like these that the Small Family Home perhaps best represents everything we want it to be – a place of connection, belonging and togetherness.

Without Emira, many of these trips might never happen

As always, they were accompanied by Emira Hodžić, President of the Association for Persons with Special Needs of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton.

She brings them together. She organizes. She calls. She plans. She makes sure no one is forgotten. And once they set off on a journey, her responsibility does not end – in many ways, that is when it truly begins.

For many members of the Association, Emira is the person who makes it possible for them to go on outings, travel beyond the communities where they live and spend a few days somewhere different.

And they are very much aware of this.

Sometimes they say something to her that reveals just how deeply they worry about their future:

"If something happens to you, no one will ever invite us anywhere again."

It is difficult to hear such a sentence.

Because behind it lies more than their attachment to Emira. It reflects the fear of people who know how few opportunities they have and how often their participation in community life depends on whether there is someone willing to bring them together, arrange transportation, take responsibility and stay by their side from the moment they leave home until they return.

And things are not always easy for Emira either.

She herself lives with numerous health conditions which, among other things, affect her mobility. Yet whenever the members of her Association need to go somewhere, she goes with them.

She makes sure everyone is there.

That everyone has eaten.

That everyone is well.

That no one is left behind.

Perhaps that is why the relationship between Emira and the members of the Association has long since become much more than a relationship between an association president and its members. It is built on trust, affection, responsibility and a profound sense of security.

"We could live here"

During their five days in Ledići, we were once again reminded how little it sometimes takes for someone to feel that they truly belong.

Here, no one is simply a "beneficiary", nor is anyone merely a guest who expects others to take care of everything.

Some cook. Others wash the dishes. Others clean. Someone works in the garden, someone takes care of the yard, someone paints, and someone helps in whatever way they can.

Everyone has their place.

Everyone is needed.

And together, everyone takes care of the house.

Perhaps that is why our friends from Goražde find it harder to leave Ledići each time they visit.

After waiting almost an entire year for this visit, five days passed unbelievably quickly.

They told us they did not want to go home.

That they wished they could stay.

That they could imagine all living here together, like one big family.

And when you watch them preparing lunch together, deciding who will wash the dishes, who will sweep, who will go to the garden and who will take care of another task, you realize that for those five days, this is exactly how they live.

Like a family.

Not a family by blood, but a family formed through the care they give one another.

The fifth day always comes too soon

And then the fifth day arrived.

Too soon.

It was time to pack their belongings, check once more that everything had been left tidy, and head back to Goražde.

There was sadness in saying goodbye.

Because for our friends, Ledići is no longer simply a house in the mountains that they occasionally visit.

Here, they find peace and respite from the difficulties of everyday life. Here, they have space. Work they can do. Someone they can help. Someone who needs them.

Here, even if only for a few days, they do not think about what they lack or what they cannot do.

Instead, they think about what needs to be done today.

What we are going to cook.

Who will wash the dishes.

What needs to be finished in the garden.

And where we will all go together tomorrow.

Perhaps that is why each new visit feels less like a visit and more like returning to a familiar place.

A place where they know where the plates are kept, what needs to be done in the garden and who will be the first to pick up a broom, a paintbrush or a cooking spoon.

A place where they have responsibilities, but also peace.

A place where they feel needed.

And a place they do not want to leave.

Keeping the doors of Ledići open

We would not have been able to organize this stay without the support of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, which for the third consecutive year has funded the largest share of the Small Family Home's operating costs through its Transfer for Support to Non-Institutional Forms of Care and Protection.

Thanks to this support, this year we were able to welcome the members of the Association for Persons with Special Needs of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton and give them the opportunity to spend five days living together in Ledići.

The costs of transportation, food, maintaining the house and everything else needed to keep a home like this open may not be visible in the photographs.

But they determine whether people who have waited almost an entire year for their five days in Ledići will actually have the opportunity to come.

We are therefore deeply grateful to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Policy for recognizing the value of this project for the third consecutive year and enabling us to ensure that the Small Family Home is not simply a house in the mountains, but a place where children without parental care, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups can stay, spend time together, work, learn, rest and feel at home.

We hope that we will not have to wait almost another year before seeing our friends from Goražde again.

We hope they will be back next spring.

This time, they helped us prepare the garden for winter.

Next time, we want to plant it together.

And perhaps the greatest value of everything we do can be found in their simple wish:

that they did not have to leave Ledići at all, and that they could stay and live here together – as one big family.