August 10, 2006

MBA student offers business aid to post-war Bosnian women

By Jennifer Robertson
Staff Writer

When Almaden Valley native Yvette Barnes, an MBA student at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., was choosing the country where she would do her international business internship, she selected Bosnia.

Hajrija and Bahira at the loom.

Now an independent country, Bosnia was a predominantly Muslim province of Yugo-slavia that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic attempted to ethnically cleanse in the early 90s.

Barnes’s internship is through the Advocacy Project (AP), a nonprofit organization that serves community-based human rights and peace advocates. Barnes’s goal is to get a job in international business development, which is why she chose this particular internship.

“Although AP has several positions all over the world for internships, they mostly focus and cater to international affairs and development, not business. I really wanted a business internship so ... I lobbied for Bosnia as my first choice,” she explained.

One of AP’s 20 partner organizations, Bosfam started in refugee camps during the war as a knitting group where women could support each other. The name stands for “Bosnian family” and enables women to gather together to weave beautiful, ornate carpets that they sell to earn money for their families. Based in Srebrenica and Tuzla, it has grown into an organized group that “supports displaced and refugee women in Eastern Bosnia” by training them in the art of traditional carpet weaving. The women lost their husbands, sons, fathers and other loved ones in the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.

Barnes’s job is to help Bosfam develop a business plan for its weaving center and apprenticeship program. This is difficult because the women use the weaving as a form of therapy and Barnes is trying to help them to focus on turning this into a sustainable business, explained Stacy Kosko, Barnes’s supervisor at AP. “She’s been able to move this project forward more quickly ... than we ever expected.”

It’s not a surprise that Barnes adapted so well to her new life in Bosnia. As a child, she traveled to countries all over the world with her parents, and she lived in the United Kingdom until she was 13 years old. Her mom is a British citizen who was born in East Asia, and her dad, who is half French, is an American citizen and native of California. International work certainly runs in the family; Barnes’s grandfather and her great grandfather were both diplomats in China.

Barnes finished her B.A. in business with a concentration in international business at San Jose State University in 2000. She proceeded to take a position in Nepal through the Peace Corps, where she had no hot water, no washing machine and “no conveniences, basically.”

What she did have was a wonderful Nepalese family who took care of her and the rewarding experience of helping mobilize Micro Credit banks for rural women, which enabled them to take out loans and start small businesses. “I didn’t know what international development was. I just knew I was getting a chance to be a part of something special,” she said of the experience.

When Kosko was selecting the intern for this project, she knew she needed someone who could actively help build a business plan, so Barnes’s experience in Nepal was appealing. Barnes’s ability to learn foreign languages also contributed to her appeal as a candidate: She speaks French, German, Italian, Nepalese and now some Bosnian.

“She had a lot of interest in government organizations and experience in human rights,” said Kosko. “Her ability to organize Bosfam around a particular project” and “to meet goals we had set out together in a timely manner,” is what Kosko said impressed her the most about Barnes’s performance. This is difficult to do for a grassroots project, she said. On top of that, Barnes has been able to build relationships with the women at Bosfam. “[The women] love her. They think she’s warm, she’s brilliant, she’s helpful.”

A glimpse of life at Bosfam
Barnes lives in an apartment right above her office. On a typical day, she is downstairs by 8:30 a.m., which is when the women start arriving. She sends a few e-mails, and discusses the previous day with the weavers over coffee. Barnes is usually back to work by 10 a.m. Barnes’s activities are varied and could include anything from writing proposals to printing marketing materials. One week, she did inventory of the carpet gallery and updated the carpet database, which is all in Bosnian! She usually has lunch with the weavers and leaves the office by 6:30 p.m.

The organization sold about 90 carpets last year through Worldstock.com, which is a division of Overstock.com, and Barnes is currently working on a follow-up order. She spends a great deal of time researching other outlets for the carpets in the U.S., Bosnia and other countries to help Bosfam expand its business.

She is also responsible for updating the organization’s Web content, developing an accounting system for the organization and writing blogs, press releases and newsletters about the plight of the women at Bosfam.

The women are very curious about Barnes and since they’ve gotten to know her they feel comfortable enough to share their intimate stories, laughter and especially their food with her. “They are constantly trying to feed me or marry me off to a ‘good Bosnian boy,’” she laughs. “The women talk very openly about their lives and the tragedies they have faced, but they also make a lot of jokes and know how to have a good laugh.”

Trying to develop relationships with vendors and organizations in the United States while living in a foreign country has been one of her greatest challenges. She cannot make a quick phone call or meet with people in person, and the Internet connection in Bosnia is very slow.

“Relationships and small talk over coffee will always take precedence over business,” she explained. In order to create more structure, Barnes and her boss, Beba, agreed to meet once a week to have coffee and go over what needs to be done. “Basically, things can get done, but slowly.”

A nation still struggling
More than 10 years after the end of the civil war when the country of Yugoslavia was dissolved, Bosnia is still struggling to recover. “Bosnia is still a long way from recovering from the war,” said Barnes. “Although a lot of aid was sent here after the war, Bosnia has been all but forgotten in the past five years as the international community has shifted its focus to Afghanistan, Iraq and in areas that have endured natural disasters.”

Barnes explained that the country still faces many challenges. For example, landmines and unexploded shells are prevalent, and village people often live within a short radius of areas that contain these mines. The company that removes the mines is the company that manufactured them during the war, so there is little incentive for removing them. The unemployment rate is about 40 percent, and there are three presidents and more than 200 political parties.

Perhaps one of her most profound experiences in Bosnia was the mass burial she recently witnessed, during which 505 bodies of victims who perished in the Srebrenica massacre were buried after having been identified this year. Prior to this burial, only about 1,500 had been buried and as many as 6,000 are still missing, Barnes wrote in a blog. It has been more than 11 years since the massacre and many of the women are still waiting to hear that their husbands or sons can be buried. At least one of the weavers attended the burial to bury her son, who was killed at the massacre in 1995. This was the first time Barnes ever attended an Islamic ceremony, and the image of about 20,000 Muslims bowing in prayer was a “powerful image” for her.

Barnes is working on the memorial quilt project that will honor those killed in the massacre. Each woman will weave a memorial square for the loved ones she lost.

Barnes is conducting outreach to raise awareness in the U.S. to encourage organizations to sponsor squares for the quilt.

Although the wounds caused by the war have not healed and Bosnia is considered a developing country, Barnes feels safe and welcome there. “What I want people to know about Bosnia is that it is a beautiful country, the people are warm and hospitable. The country has a rich history ... everywhere one looks there are old churches, historic buildings and beautiful mosques.”

When Barnes returns to the U.S., she will continue to work with the Advocacy Project to raise awareness about Bosfam. “Our community can help by buying Bosnian carpets,” she said. “They are truly beautiful works of art and [the money raised] goes to support women who work hard and are some of the sweetest people I have ever met. I think it is also important that the international community not forget Bosnia and the Balkans, especially considering that there are still war criminals at large here.”

Future humanitarian efforts
Barnes will finish her M.B.A. in May 2007. Her goal is to find a job in international business and development after she graduates, which could involve working for a private firm in Silicon Valley that does business in Asia or working for a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C. or New York. “I feel that international business development doesn’t pigeonhole me into a certain discipline,” she explained.

Some of Barnes’s other interests include traveling, hiking, reading, knitting, scuba diving, poker and rock climbing. She is a board member for the Georgetown Wine Society and the Public Speaking Club. Regardless of what the future holds for her, foreign travel will probably always be a part of whatever she does. “All I ever wanted to do was travel and see the world,” she said.

In spite of the fact that their daughter’s vocation takes her thousands of miles from home to work for free under conditions that would keep most parents awake at night, Barnes’s parents support her humanitarian missions. “I think it’s great. We’re thrilled,” said her mother, Annette Barnes. “She’s helping people and that’s what she likes doing... She has such a great heart.”

Although she admits she feared for her daughter’s safety at first, Barnes has always been a “fearless girl,” her mother explained. “She was fearless from the get-go.”

For more information about AP and Bosfam, visit www.advocacynet.org.