Meet Adela Softić, our Project Team Leader

Adela Softić is the Project team leader dedicated to strengthening the capacities of the health system, improving the quality of services provided, and recognizing the additional strain placed on the public healthcare system due to the mixed migration trends and the needs of local citizens. During the previous two years of the project's implementation, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Adela was in charge of establishing and maintaining a constructive and effective partnership with health institutions across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"Medical professionals are more than dedicated and do their job with a high professional standard despite all their challenges.  Their commitment, empathy, and dedication have only one goal - to provide equal and high-quality assistance to all people who need it, whether it's the local population or people on the move. Therefore, we are more than happy to support the work of health institutions by providing medical equipment and devices or renovating needed departments," says Adela.

Her daily activities include communicating with health institutions, local governments, and partner organizations, as well as writing reports to donors on project progress, emphasizing the importance of the activities that have already been implemented for those in need.

"Leading the projects requires understanding the context and problems, but also an analysis of the field situation to make a better and more adequate contribution to solving challenges within the migrant population. What motivates me to work for the DRC are, first of all, my colleagues on the field who provide help to vulnerable groups of people. I believe they are the ones making the DRC in BiH have an empathic attitude toward migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, as well as their problems and needs," emphasized Adela, whose work contributes to strengthening the capacities of the governmental institutions such as relevant health ministries and public health institutes, with which the DRC works in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The new project Support to health transition started with the implementation in August 2022 with the assessment of the needs of health institutions in Una-Sana and Sarajevo canton, while the delivery of the equipment began in March 2023.

"In our work, sometimes we face the impossibility of helping every single person in need due to their constant movement, which can be difficult to accept from our humanitarian perspective. Moreover, we often encounter difficult life situations among the people on the move we work with. Sometimes it is not possible to put such problems aside and not allow them to affect our private lives," concludes Adela, adding that she found salvation and distraction from such situations in bike rides and walking with her dog in her free time.