Short History ASB in SEE

First humanitarian convoys entering the besieged city of Mostar in the war-year of 1992 in BiH, were marked with the logo of the German non-governmental organisation, Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB). Since then, our organisation implemented over 350 humanitarian and developmental projects in the Balkans (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Monte Negro and Albania) totalling over € 175 million and assisted more than 120.000 persons in need for reconstructed homes, economic sustainability, technical and social infrastructure and other types of socio-economic assistance. ASB has also been dedicated to linking and capacity building of public, private and civil sectors with the aim of empowering structures which supports after-conflict recovery and development of countries in the region.With the help of ASB more than 5000 private homes were reconstructed or constructed in 237 municipalities in the South Eastern Europe.

More specifically, ASB is continuously engaged in the implementation of projects falling under intervention sub-sectors of Return and reintegration, Socio-economic inclusion of marginalised groups, Support to the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, strengthening of the Civil Society in South East Europe and Fostering Samaritan Cooperation between ASB – established Samaritan organisations in South East Europe at the local level. Since 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1994 in Croatia and Macedonia, 1997 in Albania, 1998 in Serbia and Kosovo, ASB has been implementing relief, reconstruction and developmental projects by linking the three into the integrated concept of holistic approach to helping those in ultimate need, mainly form the most vulnerable and marginalised population groups within Balkan countries’ societies.

The recognition of the ASB efforts and consequent impact in the Balkan region is confirmed beyond any doubt by the large spectrum of donors vesting their significant funds to ASB for implementation of numerous projects in the last twenty years. Among them are: European Union Structures (EC, ECHO, EAR), bilateral international donors (Governments of Germany, USA, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Norway), bilateral regional donors (Governments of Croatia, BiH, Serbia and Kosovo), private donors (German companies such as Bayer), private citizen-ridden donations and ASB itself. As the positive consequence of its long-term presence in the region, ASB has developed close and effective cooperation, coordination and open dialogue with state, regional and local authorities in the target countries, thus creating solid foundations for future formal partnerships with local governments aiming at joint representation in the process of attracting donors’ investments in the region. Furthermore, due to the nature of its work, ASB has created a wide net of local partners, civil society organisations as the conditio sine qua non for qualitative partnership in detecting real needs and constraints of target beneficiary groups. By being well-rooted in the Balkan countries and closely cooperating with their decision makers and citizens from public and civil sectors, ASB has become an inevitable actor in the region when comes to socio-economic assistance provided to the vulnerable. Such scenario continuously obliges the ASB Balkan offices to promote result-oriented, innovative ideas and initiative and provide its contribution to winds of positive change in these countries in transition towards EU.

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