Country Description:

PCARE International began operating in the Balkans in 1992 by distributing food, medicine and hygiene supplies. The same year, CARE started a small project to assist displaced elderly and children at two residential centers on the Croatian Dalmatian Coast. In January 1994, CARE launched is first major project in the region, an emergency water purification project for Sarajevo funded by the government of Canada; operations have grown steadily since. Today, CARE-CBH employs about 500 national and 12 international staff mission-wide and implements projects in the fields of health and social services, trauma healing and peaceful problem solving, water, microcredit and small-scale reconstruction. These projects are being implemented in more than 25 municipalities with an annual operating budget of $9.5 million. CARE CBH has also been instrumental in advocacy and lobbying in two sectors: social services (particularly the care of vulnerable groups) and local NGO support. CARE was one of the first NGOs to operate in all ethnic and political areas of influence; its regional headquarters is in Zagreb, and there are sub-offices in Vukovar, Bihac, Sarajevo, Mostar, Banja Luka and Serbian East Bosnia.