What, when and who?
The Vegan Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina (VivaBiH), established in 2016, stands as the pioneering dietary transformation and vegan non profit organisation within the nation. Guided by an unwavering commitment to the advancement of animal rights and environmental sustainability, VivaBiH undertakes diet change campaigns and tirelessly promotes animal rights and sustainable food systems across the nation.
Background and goals
Our goal is to create a compassionate world where all animals thrive, enjoying freedom and rights without being exploited for food, clothing, experiments, or entertainment. We envision a future of ethical, environmentally sustainable, and healthy food systems that respect the dignity and well-being of every living being.
We raise awareness about animal exploitation and educate diverse communities on the ethical, environmental, and health benefits of veganism. By fostering collaborations with stakeholders, we strive to make affordable vegan food accessible to all, empowering people to make compassionate, sustainable, and healthy choices for themselves and the planet. One initiative that we are very excited about is including more plant-based options where possible, and striving towards long-term reduction of animalbased products.
Learning together
What is innovative about your initiative?
We believe that by offering free education, services, help and all the necessity for hotel, restaurant, school or other legal entities we can greatly help those who are interested in serving more plant-based options, to serve more vegan/plant-based and ultimately less animal-based dishes.
How were you able to finance your work?
By private funding and some grants for diet-change organisations.
What hurdles and obstacles did you encounter along your way and how did you deal with them?
Working with very busy chefs and managers is always challenging, but a proper plan and communication skills with such types of people helped us see their perspective and how we can navigate towards a more plant-based future all together.
What have you had particularly good experiences with? What recommendations would you like to share with other actors?
Explaining all the benefits the other party will have by including more plant-based options, as we believe in almost all partnerships, every side seeks to have something that benefits them, so an otherparty benefit story approach might be helpful. Use your social media to promote others who got involved in your project.
Are there any tools or other forms of support that have played a role for you?
Other organisations and people who have been engaging in similar work who have been able to directly and indirectly teach us how to improve the effectiveness of our project.
Where do you see yourself/your organisation in a few years? How do you rate your future prospects?
We see ourselves as a pioneer nonprofit in diet-change and vegan advocacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and further. We expect that our institutional outreach program will help greatly increase the popularity of plant-based dishes in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as our public awareness campaigns that have a huge impact on people’s opinion on usage of animals in their diet.
What are your demands for politicians?
Stop giving subsidies for animal products and fund plant-based products instead.
Exchange and support
Are you involved in one or more networks or partnerships?
Yes.
Contact
Organization: VivaBiH - Vegan Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Website: https://vivabih.org/en/
E-mail: info(at)vivabih.org
This project presentation is licensed under the following CC license: BY-Attribution