The best indicator of the successful implementation of the Hastor Foundation’s mission are the results of the scholarship holders whom we are proud of. We are pleased to present them to you. In the following text, you will meet our young and talented scholarship holder Emin Čekro. His hobby is writing, and he discovered this talent at the age of fifteen.

When you ask him where he comes from, Emin says: I come from a small town where every morning I stare at the mountain Hrgud, bathed in the sun, where the wind kisses the valley, where the river Bregava clears its path in stone, where flocks of migratory birds barely separate on a long journey, because it is not easy to leave the beauty of home, where dark nights seek the bright dawn adorned with azan, where every human being has time to guard, to love, to feel, to hear, to be proud, to take, to enjoy – Stolac city.

Emin is originally from Sarajevo, and only with a few months of his life did this Herzegovinian pearl return to his family throne. He finished primary and secondary economic school in Stolac, and he says that he finds a reprieve from numbers and arithmetic operations in writing. He plans to continue his education at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Sarajevo. He decided to turn true love for animals into a humane vocation. As Emin says, enrolling in this college would be the realization of his boyhood dream. He did not want to hide his true love for the city in which he lives, so he applied for a literary competition called “Enes Ratkušić”, with the work “My Stolac, my dreams” and won first place. The name Enes Ratkušić in Stolac means a lot, and our scholarship holder is proud that he participated in this competition and was the best in it. He says that he finds inspiration in everyday life, nature and the goodness of the world around us.

His long-term engagement in high school encouraged him on a literary journey that he plans to continue, and he applied for the competition at the urging of a professor of Bosnian language and literature. Looking back at the competition itself and his high school days, Emin was happy to recall the emotions that prevailed at the award ceremony:

My trip in Stolac High School ended a few days ago and I received a plaque for winning 1st place in its premises. The emotional moment at the presentation of the plaque and Enes’ book “Bosnia is bigger than Europe” was indescribable… At that moment, many tingles passed through my body, the meaning of which I do not even know.
For Emin, this award is another confirmation of the profitability of dedicated work. As he himself says, although it was a hot summer day at the award ceremony, the first place for him is a tropical refreshment. The most important support in life are his family members and friends, so dear people are an indispensable part of Emin’s story as well. A special note to this competition was given by the competitive spirit between school colleagues.

On whether he plans to write his book, Emin revealed to us that, hiding from other people and in silence; he is writing the pages of a new work, which he hopes we will soon be able to read.

Emin says about the position of the Hastor Foundation in his life:

As life is made up of the roads we pass from day to day, the Hastor Foundation, of which I have been a scholarship holder for a year, follows me on one of them. The foundation significantly facilitated my path to realizing my dreams and helped me gain new knowledge and experiences.

We wish Emin good luck in the future and at faculty and similar competitions and projects. He is an example of a young person we can look up to, and he tells young people: Be a pen that writes bright letters day by day on the white pages of life showered with knowledge, kindness and nobility of man.

Prepared by: Hana Kolasević

Translated by: Nejra Galijašević