Peace cannot be restored by forcing ourselves to forget. It only can be achieved when we approach each other of our own accord.

Coming from a south German home, Judith Brand (born 1969) soon decided that her aim was to make things better for less fortunate people. She got to know the situation of war-traumatized women by working and doing research for her social work diploma in Bosnia. After having received her diploma, Judith started a multi-ethnic center for women and children from different ethnic communities in Kosovo. With the initial help of the NGO Amica e.V. a self-supporting project prospered in the embattled surroundings of Rahovec/Orahovac, Kosovo.

When the war in Croatia and Bosnia started in 1992, Judith Brand got the feeling that she had to do something more than just watching news on TV. She got involved with supporting Bosnian war refugees in collective camps in Croatia and Bosnia during her summer holidays every year. Since then, the social worker keeps on returning to the Balkans: for her internship as part of the studies of social work she supported traumatized women refugees in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the German NGO Amica (Latin for “friend”). These women were also part of her study research for the diploma on how war changed life circumstances for Bosnian women. After having graduated in 1999, she started working in Kosovo and installed various projects for women and girls regardless of their ethnic belonging. With the help of the organization Amica, a multi-ethnic self-supporting project prospered in the embattled surroundings of Rahovec/Orahovac, Kosovo. Five years later, when Judith left Rahovec, the local organization Hareja employed 40 women in different positions, such as school support, child care, computer classes, or running a coffee house. These women forgot about old feuds, they stood up even to their own husbands, and went to work.

Amica e.V. Iropé e.V.