Hello everyone! It’s wonderful to see you all here and to get a chance to meet some more BOLD members.
First, I want to thank our wonderful partners here at VII Academy. I’ve talked a lot with Ron and Gary about their goals with this initiative and we know we have found a great partner in them. I am sure you have all had a great week learning from their expertise and passion.
I also want to congratulate all of you on your selection for this workshop. These opportunities are competitive and you were chosen because of your ideas and the potential you have to make a difference in your communities.
This opportunity to receive a grant is the way that you can do that. These grants are not a huge amount of money, but they are a support to your great ideas. Leadership is about the ideas you have and the effort you put into them. Your talent and hard work is what will help to change the narrative in BiH, and we will support with a little funding.
This topic that you have been involved with all week is a critical one, not just for BiH but for the whole world. The quality of our public discourse requires that the people telling the stories do so with integrity and accuracy. Each of you can make a real difference in your communities by taking that responsibility.
One story that is not being told in BiH is about people like you who are trying to move this country forward. We only hear about negativity and hopelessness and we know that story benefits those who thrive on the way things are.
We need more stories about what is going on in this room and in other places to move this country forward. If more people know that there are others out there trying to do something new and different that will help inspire and support them.
Inspiration and support are things we all need to be good leaders. Please continue on that path. Best of luck with your projects!
Hvala.
