Today, in the premises of the Commission, the evaluation of applications received by students of elementary schools, who participated in the campaign "My Bosnia and Herzegovina - My Heritage", was carried out. This campaign has been performed as a part of the project for reconstruction of the building of Red Cross Society BiH in Sarajevo - Phase III. Funds for the project and the campaign, in the amount of 120,000 US dollars, were provided by the Special Fund of US Ambassadors for the protection of cultural heritage, with the US Embassy in BiH.

The Commission, in cooperation with the Red Cross Society BiH, has been implementing the project of reconstruction of the building since 2014. Upon the completion of the first phase of the project, which included cleaning, primary structural protection and repair of the building, a protective sheet on the facade was erected, which was immediately covered by graffiti.

For these reasons, at this stage of the project, the Commission proposed simultaneous implementation of the Educational campaign on the theme "Heritage and vandalism".

The aim of the campaign was to inform and teach children the extent to which creativity goes and when it turns into vandalism and lawlessness. In order to achieve this goal, an architect was hired – a street art painter with lecturing experience Mensur Demir, who thought children about a difference between vandalism, and what constitutes street art. In addition to the lectures on street art, the lectures on national heritage and its protection were also organized.

Implementation of the campaign started in the spring of the last year, when lectures were organized in the following elementary schools: ES “Grbavica II“, ES “Hrasno“, ES “Malta“, ES “Osman Nakaš“, ES “Vladislav Skarić“, ES „Meša Selimović“ and ES “Safvet-beg Bašagić“. The lectures were attended by more than 250 students from all schools.

Following the lectures in elementary schools, the competition was published for election of the best pupils' works among 128 art and literary works. Twelve pupils from elementary schools were awarded as well as three most active schools: „Vladislav Skarić“, „Hrasno“ and „Safet-beg Bašagić“. Received works were evaluated by the jury of professionals on the basis of the criteria such as: number of works, variety of techniques and themes, the originality of the works, focus of works on the heritage, quality of works and the like.

The awards, which will be awarded at a ceremony scheduled for March this year, are divided in two categories: Category I - pupils from Class I to V and category II - pupils from Class VI to IX.

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The campaign „My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage“ has been successfully implemented since 2006 by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments in cooperation with the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Primary objectives of the project „My Bosnia and Herzegovina – My Heritage“ were raising awareness of children in primary schools about the importance of cultural heritage and encouraging accountability for its preservation through emphasizing the richness and uniqueness of Bosnian tradition and culture, and the fact that the cultural heritage is unique, indispensable and integral part of our identity.

So far, more than eighty schools in twenty cities in BiH were involved in the project. More than 10,000 pupils from elementary schools from Bosnia and Herzegovina, pedagogical institutes and other institutions responsible for upbringing and education contributed to the project.

Throughout project activities, such as lectures at schools and sites of national monuments, children acquire and improve their knowledge of cultural heritage, with a focus on ancient cities, architecture, artwork, crafts, oral traditions and others.