Last week, as part of the "Visa facilitation" project, the "Visa hotline" telephone line was launched. Citizens from five West Balkan countries (Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) have the opportunity to share their experience in the process of obtaining a visa, to state their opinions and ask about their rights in the framework of the new visa facilitation agreement, which came into force on January 1^st, 2008.

Visa hotline is being set up on June 10th 2008 simultaneuosly in 5 countries from Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia and Albania). For the first time civil society organizations from the five countries from Western Balkans are holding a joint action in order to assess the impacts of the visa facilitation agreements and to campaign for a visa free regime.

For the first time ever, civil society organizations from five West Balkan countries are taking joint action in order to assess the effects of the visa facilitation agreements and to campaign of a free visa regime.

For that purpose, the Visa Hotline will be launched as an open hotline in Tirana, Sarajevo, Skopje, Podgorica and Belgrade at the same time. Further information will be presented during simultaneous press conferences held in these cities on June 10, 2008 at 12.00 pm.

For the purpose of the implementation of the project The media in the process of reintegration and sustainable return, supported by the European Union, with the goal to improve the conditions and increase the possibility for sustainable return and reintegration of minority returnees into the local community, Association Vesta logistically prepared four multi-sector workshops in four municipalities in Northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina: Tuzla, Bijeljina, Sapna and Bratunac, where it presented a multi-sector approach to the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information.

Association Vesta, in cooperation with the partner organization Mediacentar from Sarajevo, organized training sessions "The media in the process of reintegration and sustainable return" on the premises of Mediacentar in Sarajevo from 14^th to 15^th and 21^st to 22^nd of April 2008.

As part of the project "Safe schools," research was conducted into occurrences of bullying in 43 primary schools in the area of the Tuzla Canton, three primary schools from the area of the Bijeljina Municipality and two schools from the area of the Srebrenica Municipality. This activity was undertaken with the consent and support of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and the Pedagogical Institute of the Tuzla Canton, as well as the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska.

VESTA Association recently prepared and submitted to Delegation of the EC to Bosnia and Herzegovina a project proposal:
“The media in the process of reintegration and sustainable return – the campaign for reducing the effect of discriminatory and xenophobic elements in the zones of return and for respecting socio-economical rights of minority returnees in north-eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina“.
The proposal has been selected for award of a European Community grant. The project's implementation will start in October 2007. For more information contact Vesta.