Coach Vulnerable Children by young Mentors

Social exclusion of vulnerable children is the main risk factor for children to fall into drug addiction, crime and destructive lifestyles. The Bosnian organisation NARKO-NE trains students, who are between 20 and 30 years old and are actively involved in their communities, as mentors. The mentors act as coaches for children between 7 and 14 years old who come from socially and economically disadvantaged families. The mentors are volunteers who weekly interact with the children. They act as role models for the children to look up to. As a result of the coaching misbehaviour of the children as well as school absenteeism has decreased while their school performance has improved. Since the mentors as well as the children are from different ethnic backgrounds a mutual understanding is created in a country that still suffers from ethnical segregation.