Schüler Helfen Leben

Young people also showed support and solidarity for Bosnia and Herzegovina: for example, “Students for Sarajevo” groups were created in several European university towns. Other cases can be seen in the “Youth solidarity with former Yugoslavia” group in Amsterdam and the “Coordination étudiante contre la purification ethnique” group in Paris. High school students were also active, as is illustrated by the case of “Schüler Helfen Leben” (SHL – Pupils help to live).

The initiative started in late 1992, when a group of high school students from Rhineland-Palatinate saw television reports about the war and decided they would do something to help their peers from BiH. A few months later, 300 schools in Rhineland-Palatinate joined together for a campaign in which 30 tons of relief supplies were collected. Older students then brought the supplies to Bosnian pupils in refugee camps in Croatia. The initiative quickly spread to other regions in Germany, and different regional groups emerged. SHL also opened an office in Sarajevo and distributed in 1994 and 1995 educational materials to more than 40.000 pupils in Sarajevo, Zenica, Tuzla, Mostar and Goražde, as well as sports equipment and teachers’ materials to different schools.

An important part of the money collected through campaigns and donations was invested in the reconstruction of destroyed schools and kindergartens. The SHL office in Sarajevo has continued to work after the war on projects such as creating the Association of high school students in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and remains active today. In Germany, SHL became a Foundation in 2002 – the first foundation in Germany set up by school students – to provide long-term support and financial security for projects in South-Eastern Europe.