U Stambolu na Bosforu - BH Professionals Meetup

COVID-19 seriously affected our plans for meeting successful Bosnians and Herzegovinians around the globe, but we didn’t stop, we adopted and created some online meetups for our professionals, and also managed to organize a few live meetups, having in mind the required safety measures of course.

“U Stambolu, na Bosforu…”, says the old Bosnian sevdalinka. In this enchanting metropolis, the place of war and love stories, and history connecting our nations, our ambassador Adela Kadiric, together with our scholar, Ivana Jeftovic, hosted a meetup. This is Ivana’s experience:

 “This is the first time we host a meetup in Istanbul. We choosed a place gazing one of the most beautiful views and definitely with the tastiest food! It was both exciting and challenging experience – first time doing this, I didn’t know what to expect. But, it turned out to be amazing! We have met fantastic people, with different structures of age and occupation, from many fields of industry, such as mechanical engineering, architecture, electrical engineering, medicine, economy and trade specialist. Most of these people came from Bosnia to Turkey, finished their education and stayed there. Others were born there, and they speak Bosnian fluently! They never forgot their roots, and they were thrilled to join this sort of the event.

Also, we must not forget our dear Turkish friends, who had helped with the organization. Sharing life stories, ideas and dreams, beginning as complete strangers, we created a bond that will hopefully turn into long lasting friendship. We presented work, values and principles of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Futures Foundation, and I was touched by the support we have received. Meeting all of these different people, with different life and career paths, made me realise that no matter of your background, age or profession, if you share same values and you see the importance of giving and care, then you can do great things together.

Beside meetup, the BHFF, together with our new mentor, chief engineer Ozkan Koc, gave me an opportunity to do a technical survey in prestigious Turkish company – Turkish Airlines. I have visited departments of Turkish Technic, which are one the world’s leading aviation services providers, dealing with maintenance, repair, overhaul, modification and reconfiguration, and also component pooling, design, production and certification services, supporting aircraft operators and owners globally. I had a chance to speak to their engineers and technicians, hear about their duties and field of work, and I was stunned with the passion of this workforce. Learning from them was pleasure and honour. Buildings, organization, communication, conditions of work, precision, quality, innovations, sharpness, and people - all of the details fascinated me, and made me understand why Turkish Airlines is one of the world’s giants.

I am so grateful and happy to meet Adela, for who I have many thanks. This whole experience will stay unforgettable - it made me grow as a person, gave me beautiful memories and friends for a lifetime!”, explained Ivana, with a hope of redoing this in the nearest future.”

We wish to thank everyone who joined us for this meetup and we are looking forward into expanding our network with outstanding professionals who will help young people from our country by sharing knowledge and experience. Gorusuruz, Istanbul!