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On the 21st of January we had the honour to welcome Zoran Puljic, who was awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year in Central and Eastern Europe by the Schwab Foundation in 2009, at the Hub Vienna. In his Hub Talk he told us more about his story of how he became a successful and awarded social entrepreneur.
Zoran Pulijc was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina with parents from different ethnic backgrounds. When war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he joined the army. He got wounded three times and experienced all the deprivations of war until finally in 1994 he fled the country and went to Germany as a refugee. Not being allowed to work and only entitled to social welfare, he returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina and started to work within different NGOs in 1997. He committed himself to work for social cohesion between the different ethnic groups and the reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He sees economic and social development strongly connected and also believes that work is the best therapy for people who experienced trauma. After working with different NGOs, he founded Mozaik Foundation, which helps citizens organize and advance their communities by providing financial and advisory assistance. Mozaik Foundation uses a community driven approach and focuses on local resource mobilization and sustainability of social and economic development through implementing a range of programs that support initiatives in rural communities.
In his Hub Talk, Zoran Puljic focused more on his last project: he is trying to build up organic honey production in Bosnia and Herzegovina and explained us how this is going to push regional development, job creation and social cohesion while at the same time revolutionizing honey production!