Our Story

Sarajevo Phoenix is enabling women to reclaim their dignity through meaningful work. These women are Croats, Muslims and orthodox who believe in a multi-ethnic Bosnia-Herzegovina. Some are refugees, some have lost their homes in the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, others are widows who lost their husbands in the carnage of war.

Over 11,000 people were killed in the shelling of Sarajevo. Those shell impact depressions as depicted on the front side of this card, resembling the petals of a flower, have been filled with red paint in memory of those who died – aptly named “Sarajevo Roses.”

The women’s courage and will to survive is rooted in the diversity each brings to the whole like the fabric they embroider. The variety in colors and motifs in the fabric item you purchase coincides with the diversity in age, ethnicity and economic self-reliance of these women as they seek to revitalize the fabric of their lives within their communities.