Zenica, Bosnia & Herzegovina · 15 years · 600+ children
For 15 years, our day center has been a place where kids from families broken by poverty and violence get a warm meal, a classroom and people who care. Some of them grew up and now help other children in the same situation. €30 a month makes it possible, and you can cancel anytime.
Since the insurance ran out, we survive one month at a time.
The problem
Children from broken and Roma families go without breakfast and without clean clothes, and nobody checks whether they got to school or got home. The lucky ones are simply forgotten. The rest end up on the street, in the orphanage, or somewhere worse.
After the clubs and the summer camps end, these children go back to the same empty afternoons in the same neighbourhoods. The math is simple, and it’s why now matters: every child this center doesn’t reach, the street reaches first.
The cycle
Feeding a child is the easy part. We raise them. The proof is who runs the room today:
came to the center as a child and grew up inside it, through the church and through school. This month she became its coordinator, in charge of the next 35 kids. Next year she wants to study dentistry in Brazil.
met inside this work and married. Samir came through the orphanage, and two of his brothers passed through our Half Way Home farm; Melani came from a stable family. Today they help run it.
just finished top of his class and is headed for medical school.
“The child you sponsor today could be the one running this place in fifteen years. With Ema, that already happened.”
What we do today
Every weekday, about 35 children aged 5 to 15 get breakfast, a hot meal, a bath, clean clothes, and help with their homework. For most of them it’s the only place that treats them like they matter. Ema runs it now. She used to sit in those same chairs.
We hand out food parcels to families with nothing, and we sit with them when the public services won’t. And there’s one thing no one else in this city does: we give a legal address to people who have no home of their own, anyone who rents or has no fixed place to live, so they can get an ID card. Without an address, on paper you don’t exist. Today 450+ people use ours, and the local police know it.
38,000 m² that started as a refuge and a working farm. We’re turning it into something that pays for itself: camps, events, and training that fund the mission instead of leaning on donations forever.
Where your money goes
Your gift goes to UG "Pomirenje" Zenica, our registered Bosnian non-profit, not a personal account. Ask us for the figures whenever you want.
The honest ask
What kept the lights on for years was the insurance from Walter’s accident. At the end of last year, it ran out. Now we close the books one month at a time, never sure we’ll close the next one.
A crisis that comes back every month is answered by help that comes back every month. There’s no single gift that fixes this. What fixes it is a few hundred people who each decide a child is worth €30 a month.
It takes €4,000/month to keep the center running.
31% covered by 41 monthly sponsors. · 93 more monthly sponsors to reach it.
Be the next one. ↓€15/month
Breakfast and school supplies for one child
Choose €15€30/month
Sponsor a child: meals, clothes, school and care
Choose €30€100/month
Keep the doors open and back the team on the ground
Choose €100Ema’s story
Ema came to the center as a child, from a family that couldn’t carry her, and grew up with us. Year after year it was the same: breakfast, school, the church, people who stayed. This month she walked back in as the coordinator, in charge of the next 35 children. Next year she wants to study dentistry in Brazil.
Every child here is a future Ema. Your €30 a month buys them the years it takes to get there.
Who’s behind this
Walter Gonçalves started Grace Valley and has given his life to these children. He’s 64 now, and he runs it from a wheelchair. He isn’t trying to make the work depend on him. Just the opposite: the kids he raised, Ema and Samir and Melani, are already taking it over. He planned it that way.
Questions
To UG "Pomirenje" Zenica, our registered Bosnian non-profit. Not a personal account. Ask any time and we’ll send you the figures.
Any time, in two clicks. No phone call, no guilt.
It depends on your country. We’re still confirming Gift Aid for UK donors; email us and we’ll point you to the right channel.
The residential farm is winding down. The day center and the church carry the daily care now.
Yes. Building, summer camps, handing out aid, helping the church. See Get Involved.
Yes. Bank transfer to the Pomirenje organisational account, or PIX. Details on the Donate page.
