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Recognizing the low student standard in Bosnia and Herzegovina and lack of adequate and affordable student-friendly restaurants in Sarajevo, EDVACAY Fellows Amina Pirić, Lamija Jaman, Iman Krnjić and Nikola Xaviereff started a campaign which resulted in a student cookbook.
The publication they created is in fact a collection of recipes for improvised and inexpensive dishes, as well as personal testimonies shared by University of Sarajevo students, aiming to illustrate the aforementioned issues. The target group comprised around twenty students living away from their families and/or outside their hometowns, both in the public dorms in Sarajevo, as well as private apartments. After collecting information through interviews, the group then recreated the described dishes themselves and took photographs for the booklet, which also features the price of necessary ingredients and the time required to prepare each dish.
“The shocking results of the poll showing that 1/3 of respondents spend over 75% of their money on food a month, lead us to conclude that the authorities should urgently address this problem by opening one such facility offering quality food at affordable prices. The results of the survey also showed that 99% of respondents believe that it is necessary to open a student canteen in Sarajevo, which would be subsidized by the Government of the Sarajevo Canton.”
Additionally, the group conducted research through an online questionnaire, and after collecting over 200 responses, analyzed the data on the number and the quality of meals students have per day, the amount of money they spend on food, as well as their opinion on the necessity of establishing a student restaurant in Sarajevo. The group also started an online petition addressed to the competent local authorities, with the final goal of opening a student restaurant/cafeteria in Sarajevo. By end of June 2016, 286 signatures were gathered.
On May 27, 2016, the Student Cookbook was presented at a public event in the Networks Center in Sarajevo, where participants talked about the preparation and execution of the project, the results of the conducted questionnaire, and their efforts in making a change to the current situation. Participants afterwards distributed a number of booklets to the libraries of different University of Sarajevo faculties.
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