Mission Statement

Our goal is to help education of our nation in areas where our people are a minority today and thus contribute to the development of not only the Serbian community, but also to the preservation of environments where cultures and religions intertwine.

We started with scholarship program in Mostar and Herzegovina because the connection of our people with the land, faith and each other is so specific and so strong there.

Our history

The scholarship program was started in 1902, when the Serbian Educational and Cultural Society “Prosvjeta” (“Society” or “Prosvjeta”) was founded in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. “Prosvjeta” was established by a newly educated generation of Serbian youth, who returned to their homeland after studies abroad and wanted to contribute to public life. In Sarajevo, on 20 December 1901, 29 Serbian intellectuals sent a request to the National Government to establish “Prosvjeta”, with the aim of educating the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina and providing material assistance to students.

Since its foundation, “Prosvjeta” has gathered some of the greatest intellectuals of our nation, such as – Aleksa Šantić, Ivo Andrić, Jefto Dedijer, Branko Radulović, Atanasije Šola, Grigorije Petrov, Jovan Dučić, Jovan Cvijić, Pero Slijepčević, Petar Kočić, Svetozar and Vladimir Ćorović, Uroš Krulj and many others, who not only encouraged the work of the Society with their great creative energy, but also helped it financially.

The Society was banned twice, in both world wars – in 1914 and in 1941, and in 1949 the communist authorities closed it down, only for “Prosvjeta” to restart its activities again in 1990.

However, regardless of the turbulent historical circumstances, the main objective remained the same: education of the youth, cultural and educational programs for the Serbian and other people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, establishment of libraries and funding publishing activities.

The scholarship program was renewed in 2016, first under the name “Scholarship of (descendants) the Dokić family for the children of Mostar”, which was initiated by Slavko Andrejević (descendant of the well known Mostar family Dokic – Anika (maiden name: Jelačić) and Špiro Dokić), with the support of the Bishop of Zahum-Herzegovina and Primorska, as well as the family of Boris Peško.

In 2018, this initiative was expanded to include other donors has been renamed the “Vladimir Ćorović” Scholarship after a well known Mostar intellectual in early XX century who was also a recipient of the “Prosvjeta” scholarship program.

In 2019 the scholarship program further expanded to include all pupils and students from the entire territory of the Diocese of Zahum – Herzegovina and Primorska.

Our values

A French proverb says – “there is no such thing as love, there are only evidences of love”.

In this sense, it is very important for us to encourage the development and nurturing of certain values in our community, both in our words but also through our deeds.

We remind our scholarship recipients of the necessity of adopting and preserving certain values while they are young because they are the future of our nation, and we only wish for them to be better than we are.

Our advice comes only with best intentions and we ask scholarship recipients to remind themselves of these values throughout their lives.

Father Tadej Vitovnički said: “your thoughts determine your life”, and therefore we ask to carefully nurture the beauty of spirit, soul and body, because only in this way we can fulfil our full potential and realize our personal goals.

Our scholarship should encourage its recipients to be ever more diligent. And we ask them to always look at life positively and courageously.

We hope future generations will be sincerely devoted to our people. Today in Mostar, in Herzegovina and everywhere in the world, we represent our nation and therefore we should carefully nurture our traditions, culture and history. In life, knowing our own roots and heritage allows us to better understand new situations and challenges we encounter. We should always express our patriotism and national identity in a peaceful and dignified manner. And love for our nation is best expressed by helping others.

We want our scholarship recipients to be honest, take personal responsibility and keep moral integrity. At the root of the word education in Serbo-Croatian is the word “honesty”, and that is because an educated person is only one who has personal integrity. We believe that our scholarship recepients should invest in their education not only during period of formal education, but throughout their lives. Knowledge is the most valuable asset in life that you will always have throughout your life.

Serbian men and women of Mostar and Herzegovina have always been naturally genteel and respectable. We should cultivate that trait at all times.

We need to show and witness cohesiveness of our community, and the basis of cohesiveness is respect for our families. We should always be someone who adds and multiplies in throughout his/her actions, thoughts and words.

We want our scholarship recepients to learn about our own faith, but above all to live it. Faith will give you strength, will power and peace to be yourself in every situation and always. And we should never forget that love and respect for our own religion and nation is based only on full respect for all other religions and nations.

Statistics

Since re-establishing our Scholarship program in 2016 (concluding with academic year 2022/23), we awarded a total of 501 scholarships and 52 awards. In the same period, we raised from donors a total of 236,714 euros.

In the academic year 2022/2023. year, we set new records for the number of scholarship awarded:

we received 601 applications for scholarships (which is c.70% more than previous year)
we awarded a total of 143 scholarships (9% more than previous year)
we awarded 32 awards (60% more previous last year)
the number of awarded scholarships is ten times higher than when we renewed scholarships in 2016
acceptance rate last year stood at 23.8% vs. 37.6% last year — indicating our program is becoming more demanding

Statistics on fundraising and donors

Since re-establishing our Scholarship program in 2016 (concluding with academic year 2022/23), we awarded a total of 501 scholarships and 52 awards. In the same period, we raised from donors a total of 236,714 euros.

In the academic year 2022/2023. year, we reached new record in fundraising:

we raised 73,025 euros (15% more than last year)
largest donations from a single donor from 2016 until now amounts to 15,750 euros
average donation was 663.9 euros (12.6% more compared to last year)
average donation of members of the Organizing Committee increased by 31.9%, and we would like to thank donors who this year, considering the economic situation in the region and the world, supported the call of the Organizing Committee to increase their donations (38 donors increased their donations)
we received a bequest this year as well from the inheirotors of Mrs and Mr Nadezda and Branimir Brasic