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The Mostar School Project

by Karen Coyle

CPSR News Volume 15, Number 3: Summer 1997

As hope of peace appeared on the horizon that year, members of the Italian Consortium of Solidarity repeatedly visited the city of Mostar, considered the most promising location for a reconciliation between the diverse peoples of Yugoslavia. Ivrea entered into a sister-city relationship with Mostar, and came up with a way to bring much-needed technology to the war-torn country.

The plan, supported by the European Union, called for the formation of a computer school in Mostar as soon as a peace accord was reached. To facilitate this plan, Ivrea, the home of the Olivetti corporation and in some sense the "Silicon Valley" of Italy, offered technical education to four students from Mostar, two Croats and two Bosnians. The students trained in Ivrea would return home to teach others their newly acquired skills to others, which would help in the massive rebuilding project that Mostar would need to reestablish services and return normal life.

When CPSR offered its members a an Independent Project Fund in 1995, Norberto Patrignani, a CPSR member and employee of Olivetti in Ivrea, applied to CPSR for money to further the Mostar project. Although the $2,500 CPSR awarded was small by U.S. standards, it enabled the project to proceed.

At the end of the four students' initial training in 1996, the situation in the former Yugoslavia was still far from peaceful. The anticipated accord that would have created a united and democratic Mostar had not been achieved. Unable to go home, and with no school to teach in, they remained in Ivrea and continued their studies. As time passed and the students became more anxious to return home, it became clear that the original plan was not feasible. The European Union no longer had the presence in Mostar that would permit it to open a stable and functional technical school. Undeterred, the Ivreans initiated a new project that would take advantage of the four students new skills. They furnished each upper-level school in Mostar with a computer, modem, and printer. This equipment served as a bridge between the schools in Mostar and the host school in Ivrea. The instructors used the Internet to maintain contact with the outside world and take advantage of online resources.

Since returning home, the four students have corresponded with their friends in Ivrea about the destruction they found and about their difficulty in adjusting after their stay in Italy. Nevertheless, all of the students are glad to be back home and look forward to using their new skills.

Given the difficulty of the situation in Mostar, it isn't clear that this is a success story, at least not in the usual sense. What is clear is that CPSR was able to take part in an experiment using technology to rebuild a country after a devastating war. The Italian participants have greatly appreciated our contribution to this project. When Norberto Patrignani visited the CPSR office this May, he brought with him $120 in donations to CPSR that had been gathered at a meeting in Ivrea-in thanks for our own donation which helped make the experiment possible.

Karen Coyle is a librarian at the University of California with nearly 20 years of experience developing computer systems for libraries. She is the Western Regional Director of CPSR and Chair of the organizing committee for the 1997 CPSR Annual Meeting.

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